it, partly from a politic appreciation of its value in making her
popular--especially pageantry at some one else's expense, was
illustrated in the gorgeous doings at Kenilworth, depicted (with sundry
anachronisms) in Scott's novel.

These gaieties were the embroidery on more serious matters, for the
Netherlands had for some time been engaged in their apparently desperate
struggle with the power of Spain, and now actually invited the Queen of
England to assume sovereignty over them--an offer which she was too
acute to accept.

Yet we cannot pass over a highly characteristic incident. When the
queen's majesty had a bad toothache, the protestations of her whole
council failed to persuade her to face the extraction of the tooth, till
the Bishop of London invited the surgeon to operate first on him in her
presence, with satisfactory results. We must also record how the ugly
little Alencon, or Anjou as he was now called, arrived unexpectedly to
woo her in person, charmed her by his chivalrous audacity in doing so,
and won from her the appropriate name of "Little Frog."

Whether she really wished to marry her "frog" is extremely doubtful. She
made all the more parade of her desire to do so, since the extreme
antipathy of the council and the nation to the project would secure her
a retreat to the last. The expectation of the marriage caused the
Netherlanders to offer Anjou the sovereignty which she had rejected;
with the idea of thus securing the united support of England and France.
But when matters reached the point of negotiation for an Anglo-French
league, with the marriage as one of the articles, Elizabeth, of course,
could not be brought to a definite answer, and after long delay Anjou
found himself obliged to return to the Netherlands, neither accepted nor
rejected. His subsequent death put an end to this, her last, matrimonial
comedy.

At last an English force was actually sent to help the Netherlanders,
under the command of Leicester. His conduct there led to his recall.
Another favourite stood high in the queen's good graces--Walter Raleigh.
Probably it was with a view to ousting this rival that Leicester brought
his stepson Essex into the queen's notice.

But now the hour of Mary's doom was approaching. A plot was set on foot
for the assassination of Elizabeth, into which Anthony Babington, whose
name it bears, was drawn. Walsingham, possessed of complete information
from the beginning, through his spies, nurs