ver the inclinations of the chief nobility
and counsellors, in case of the queen's demise.[*] They found the
dispositions of men as favorable as they could wish; and they even
entered into a correspondence with Secretary Cecil, whose influence,
after the fall of Essex, was now uncontrolled,[**] and who was resolved,
by this policy, to acquire in time the confidence of the successor. He
knew how jealous Elizabeth ever was of her authority, and he therefore
carefully concealed from her his attachment to James: but he afterwards
asserted, that nothing could be more advantageous to her than this
correspondence; because the king of Scots, secure of mounting the throne
by his undoubted title, aided by those connections with the English
ministry was the less likely to give any disturbance to the present
sovereign. He also persuaded that prince to remain in quiet, and
patiently to expect that time should open to him the inheritance of the
crown, without pushing his friends on desperate enterprises, which would
totally incapacitate them from serving him. James's equity, as well as
his natural facility of disposition, easily inclined him to embrace
that resolution;[***] and in this manner the minds of the English were
silently but universally disposed to admit, without opposition, the
succession of the Scottish line: the death of Essex, by putting an end
to faction, had been rather favorable than prejudicial to that great
event.

The French king, who was little prepossessed in favor of James, and
who, for obvious reasons, was averse to the union of England and
Scotland,[****] made his ambassador drop some hints to Cecil of Henry's
willingness to concur in any measure for disappointing the hopes of the
Scottish monarch; but as Cecil showed an entire disapprobation of such
schemes.

* Birch's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 510.

** Osborne, p. 615.

*** Spotswood, p. 471, 472

**** Winwood, vol. i. p. 352

The court of France took no further steps in that matter; and thus
the only foreign power which could give much disturbance to James's
succession, was induced to acquiesce in it.[*]

* Spotswood, p. 471

Henry made a journey this summer to Calais; and the queen, hearing of
his intentions, went to Dover, in hopes of having a personal interview
with a monarch, whom, of all others, she most loved and most respected.
The king of France, who felt the same sentiments towards her, would
gladly have accepted of