, and soon after died. This person is
described by the writers of that age, as the most perfect model of
an accomplished gentleman that could be formed even by the wanton
imagination of poetry or fiction. Virtuous conduct, polite conversation,
heroic valor, and elegant erudition, all concurred to render him the
ornament and delight of the English court; and as the credit which he
possessed with the queen and the earl of Leicester was wholly employed
in the encouragement of genius and literature, his praises have been
transmitted with advantage to posterity. No person was so low as not to
become an object of his humanity. After this last action, while he was
lying on the field mangled with wounds, a bottle of water was brought
him to relieve his thirst; but observing a soldier near him in a like
miserable condition, he said, "This man's necessity is still greater
than mine;" and resigned to him the bottle of water. The king of Scots,
struck with admiration of Sidney's virtue, celebrated his memory in a
copy of Latin verses, which he composed on the death of that young hero.

[Illustration: 1-553-sidney.jpg SIR PHILIP SIDNEY]

The English, though a long peace had deprived them of all experience,
were strongly possessed of military genius; and the advantages gained
by the prince of Parma were not attributed to the superior bravery
and discipline of the Spaniards, but solely to the want of military
abilities in Leicester. The states were much discontented with his
management of the war; still more with his arbitrary and imperious
conduct; and at the end of the campaign, they applied to him for a
redress of all their grievances. But Leicester, without giving them any
satisfaction, departed soon after for England.[*]

* Camden, p. 512. Bentivoglio, part ii. lib. iv.

The queen, while she provoked so powerful an enemy as the king of Spain,
was not forgetful to secure herself on the side of Scotland; and she
endeavored both to cultivate the friendship and alliance of her kinsman
James, and to remove all grounds of quarrel between them. An attempt
which she had made some time before was not well calculated to gain Ihe
confidence of that prince. She had despatched Wotton as her ambassador
to Scotland; but though she gave him private instructions with regard
to her affairs, she informed James, that when she had any political
business to discuss with him, she would employ another minister; that
this man was not fitted for s