e did so,
nor did her mind in the least wander from him. Her voice soon after
left her and senses failed; she fell into a lethargic slumber, which
continued some hours; and she expired gently, without further struggle
or convulsion, in the seventieth year of her age, and forty-fifth of her
reign.

So dark a cloud overcast the evening of that day which had shone out
with a mighty lustre in the eyes of all Europe. There are few great
personages in history who have been more exposed to the calumny of
enemies and the adulation of friends than Queen Elizabeth; and yet there
scarcely is any whose reputation has been more certainly determined
by the unanimous consent of posterity. The unusual length of her
administration, and the strong features of her character, were able to
overcome all prejudices; and obliging her detractors to abate much of
their invectives, and her admirers somewhat of their panegyrics, have
at last, in spite of political factions and, what is more, of religious
animosities, produced a uniform judgment with regard to her conduct.
Her vigor, her constancy, her magnanimity, her penetration, vigilance,
address, are allowed to merit the highest praises, and appear not to
have been surpassed by any person that ever filled a throne: a conduct
less rigorous, less imperious, more sincere, more indulgent to her
people, would have been requisite to form a perfect character. By the
force of her mind, she controlled all her more active and stronger
qualities, and prevented them from running into excess: her heroism was
exempt from temerity, her frugality from avarice, her friendship from
partiality, her active temper from turbulency and a vain ambition;
she guarded not herself with equal care or equal success from lesser
infirmities; the rivalship of beauty, the desire of admiration, the
jealousy of love, and the sallies of anger.

Her singular talents for government were founded equally on her temper
and on her capacity. Endowed with a great command over herself, she
soon obtained an uncontrolled ascendant over her people; and while she
merited all their esteem by her real virtues, she also engaged their
affections by her pretended ones. Few sovereigns of England succeeded to
the throne in more difficult circumstances; and none ever conducted the
government with such uniform success and felicity. Though unacquainted
with the practice of toleration, the true secret for managing religious
factions, she preserved her