ntial
intercourse she might formerly have held with the lord-admiral, and
whose fidelity to her in that business had stood firm against all the
threats of the protector and council, and the artifices of those by whom
his examination had been conducted. That mindfulness of former services,
of which the advancement of this man formed by no means a solitary
instance in the conduct of Elizabeth, appeared the more commendable in
her, because she accompanied it with a generous oblivion of the many
slights and injuries to which her defenceless and persecuted condition
had so long exposed her from others.

The merit of Cecil was already in part known to the public; and his
promotion to an office of such importance was a happy omen for the
protestant cause, his attachment to which had been judged the sole
impediment to his advancement under the late reign to situations of
power and trust corresponding with the opinion entertained of his
integrity and political wisdom. A brief retrospect of the scenes of
public life in which he had already been an actor will best explain the
character and sentiments of this eminent person, destined to wield for
more than forty years with unparalleled skill and felicity, under a
mistress who knew his value, the energies of the English state.

Born, in 1520, the son of the master of the royal wardrobe, Cecil early
engaged the notice of Henry VIII. by the fame of a religious dispute
which he had held in Latin with two popish priests attached to the Irish
chieftain O'Neal. A place in reversion freely bestowed on him by the
king at once rewarded the zeal of the young polemic, and encouraged him
to desert the profession of the law, in which he had embarked, for the
political career.

His marriage with the sister of sir John Cheke strengthened his interest
at court by procuring him an introduction to the earl of Hertford, and
early in the reign of Edward this powerful patronage obtained for him
the office of secretary of state. In the first disgrace of the protector
he lost his place, and was for a short time a prisoner in the Tower; but
his compliant conduct soon restored him to favor: he scrupled not to
draw the articles of impeachment against the protector; and
Northumberland, finding him both able in business and highly acceptable
to the young monarch, procured, or permitted, his reinstatement in
office in September 1550.

Cecil, however, was both too wary and too honest to regard himself as
pl