r since. Some particulars of sir Henry Sidney's
government of Ireland may come under review hereafter: it is sufficient
here to observe, that ample testimony to his merit was furnished by
Elizabeth herself, in the steadiness with which she persisted in
appointing and re-appointing him to this most perplexing department of
public service, in spite of all the cabals, of English or Irish growth,
by which, though his favor with her was sometimes shaken, her rooted
opinion of his probity and sufficiency could never be overthrown.

The failure of Elizabeth's negotiations with the French court was
followed by her taking up arms in support of the oppressed Hugonots; and
Ambrose Dudley earl of Warwick, the elder brother of lord Robert, was
sent to Normandy at the head of three thousand men. Of the two Dudleys
it was said by their contemporaries, that the elder inherited the money,
and the younger the wit, of his father. If this remark were well
founded, which seems doubtful, the appointment of Warwick to an
important command must probably be set down to the account of
favoritism. It was not however the wish of the queen that her troops
should often be led into battle. It was her main object to obtain
lasting possession of the town of Havre, as an indemnification for the
loss of Calais, so much deplored by the nation; and into this place
Warwick threw himself with his chief force. In the next campaign, when
it was assailed with the whole power of France, he prepared, according
to the orders of Elizabeth, for a desperate defence, and no blame was
ever imputed to him for a surrender, which became unavoidable through
the ravages of the plague, and the delay of reinforcements by contrary
winds[50]. Warwick appears to have preserved through life the character
of a man of honor and a brave soldier.

[Note 50: It was by no remissness on the part of the queen that this
town was lost; the preservation of which was an object very near her
heart, as appears from a letter of encouragement addressed by the
privy-council to Warwick, which has the following postscript in her own
handwriting.

"My dear Warwick; If your honor and my desire could accord with the loss
of the needfullest finger I keep, God so help me in my utmost need as I
would gladly lose that one joint for your safe abode with me; but since
I cannot that I would, I will do that I may, and will rather drink in an
ashen cup than you or yours should not be succoured both by sea an