to that of
deliverance from a yoke under which her haughty spirit had repined
without the courage to resist.

Leicester died, beyond all doubt, of a fever; but so reluctant were the
prejudices of that age to dismiss any eminent person by the ordinary
roads of mortality, that it was judged necessary to take examinations
before the privy-council respecting certain magical practices said to
have been employed against his life. The son of sir James Croft
comptroller of the household, made no scruple to confess that he had
consulted an adept of the name of Smith, to learn who were his father's
enemies in the council; that Smith mentioned the earl of Leicester; and
that a little while after, flirting with his thumbs, he exclaimed,
alluding to this nobleman's cognisance, "The bear is bound to the
stake;" and again, that nothing could now save him. But as it might
after all have been difficult to show in what manner the flirting of a
thumb in London could have exerted a fatal power over the life of the
earl at Kennelworth, the adept seems to have escaped unpunished,
notwithstanding the accidental fulfilment of his denunciations.

CHAPTER XXII.

FROM 1588 TO 1591.

Effects of Leicester's death.--Rise of the queen's affection for
Essex.--Trial of the earl of Arundel.--Letter of Walsingham on religious
affairs.--Death of Mildmay.--Case of don Antonio.--Expedition to
Cadiz.--Behaviour of Essex.--Traits of sir C. Blount.--Sir H. Leigh's
resignation.--Conduct of Elizabeth to the king of Scots.--His
marriage.--Death and character of sir Francis Walsingham.--Struggle
between the earl of Essex and lord Burleigh for the nomination of his
successor.--Extracts of letters from Essex to Davison.--Inveteracy of
the queen against Davison.--Robert Cecil appointed assistant
secretary.--Private marriage of Essex.--Anger of the queen.--Reform
effected by the queen in the collection of the revenue.--Speech of
Burleigh.--Parsimony of the queen considered.--Anecdotes on this
subject.--Lines by Spenser.--Succours afforded by her to the king of
France.--Account of sir John Norris.--Essex's campaign in France.--Royal
progress.--Entertainment at Coudray--at Elvetham--at Theobald's.--Death
and character of sir Christopher Hatton.--Puckering lord-keeper.--Notice
of sir John Perrot.--Puttenham's Art of Poetry.--Verses by
Gascoigne.--Warner's Albion's England.

The death of Leicester forms an important aera in the history of the
court of Eliza