, a tremendous battle was enacted
between the Tritons of the pond and certain sylvan deities of the park,
which was long and valiantly disputed, with darts on one side and large
squirts on the other, and suddenly terminated, to the delight of all
beholders, by the seizure and submersion of old Sylvanus himself.

Elizabeth quitted Elvetham so highly gratified by the attentions of the
noble owner, that she made him a voluntary promise of her special favor
and protection; but we shall find hereafter, that her long-enduring
displeasure against him relative to his first marriage was not yet so
entirely laid aside but that a slight pretext was sufficient to bring it
once more into malignant activity.

Early in the same summer the queen had also paid a visit to lord
Burleigh at his favorite seat in Hertfordshire, of which sir Thomas
Wylks thus speaks in a letter to sir Robert Sidney:

"I suppose you have heard of her majesty's great entertainment at
Theobalds', of her knighting Mr. Robert Cecil, and of the expectation of
his advancement to the secretaryship; but so it is as we say in court,
that the knighthood must serve for both[106]."

[Note 106: "Sidney Papers."]

Sir Christopher Hatton died in the latter end of the year 1591. It
appears that he had been languishing for a considerable time under a
mortal disease; yet the vulgar appetite for the wonderful and the
tragical occasioned it to be reported that he died of a broken heart, in
consequence of her majesty's having demanded of him, with a rigor which
he had not anticipated, the payment of certain moneys received by him
for tenths and first fruits: it was added, that struck with compunction
on learning to what extremity her severity had reduced him, her majesty
had paid him several visits, and endeavoured by her gracious and
soothing speeches to revive his failing spirits;--but that the blow was
struck, and her repentance came too late. It is indeed certain that the
queen manifested great interest in the fate of her chancellor, and paid
him during his last illness very extraordinary personal attentions:--but
it ought to be mentioned, in refutation of the former part of the story,
that she remitted to his nephew and heir, who was married to a
grand-daughter of Burleigh's, all her claims on the property which he
left behind him.

During his lifetime, also, Hatton seems to have tasted more largely than
most of his competitors of the solid fruits of royal favor. Elizab