in
Holland, who related it to prince Maurice,--offers the solution of these
doubts. According to this story, the countess of Nottingham, who was a
relation, but no friend, of the earl of Essex, being on her death-bed,
entreated to see the queen; declaring that she had something to confess
to her before she could die in peace. On her majesty's arrival, the
countess produced a ring, which she said the earl of Essex had sent to
her after his condemnation, with an earnest request that she would
deliver it to the queen, as the token by which he implored her mercy;
but which, in obedience to her husband, to whom she had communicated the
circumstance, she had hitherto withheld; for which she entreated the
queen's forgiveness. On sight of the ring, Elizabeth instantly
recognised it as one which she had herself presented to her unhappy
favorite on his departure for Cadiz, with the tender promise, that of
whatsoever crimes his enemies might have accused him, or whatsoever
offences he might actually have committed against her, on his returning
to her that pledge, she would either pardon him, or admit him at least
to justify himself in her presence. Transported at once with grief and
rage, on learning the barbarous infidelity of which the earl had been
the victim and herself the dupe, the queen shook in her bed the dying
countess, and vehemently exclaiming, that God might forgive her, but she
never could, flung out of the chamber.

Returning to her palace, she surrendered herself without resistance to
the despair which seized her heart on this fatal and too late
disclosure.--Hence her refusal of medicine and almost of food;--hence
her obstinate silence interrupted only by sighs, groans, and broken
hints of a deep sorrow which she cared not to reveal;--hence the days
and nights passed by her seated on the floor, sleepless, her eyes fixed
and her finger pressed upon her mouth;--hence, in short, all those
heart-rending symptoms of incurable and mortal anguish which conducted
her, in the space of twenty days, to the lamentable termination of a
long life of power, prosperity and glory[145].

[Note 145: See the evidence for this extraordinary story fully
stated in Birch's Negotiations. On the whole, it appears sufficient to
warrant our belief; yet it should be remarked that the accounts which
have come down to us differ from each other in some important points,
and are traceable to no original witness of the interview between the
queen