articles; and afterwards in the arduous post
of lord-deputy of Ireland. Elizabeth continued him for some time in this
situation; but wishing to avail herself of his counsels and service at
home, she recalled him in 1565, conferred upon him the high dignity of
lord-chamberlain, vacant by the resignation of the earl of Arundel, and
appointed as his successor in Ireland his excellent second in office sir
Henry Sidney, who stood in the same relation, that of brother-in-law, to
Sussex and to Leicester, and whose singular merit and good fortune it
was to preserve to the end the esteem and friendship of both.

The ostensible cause of quarrel between these two earls seems to have
been their difference of opinion respecting the Austrian match; but this
was rather the pretext than the motive of an animosity deeply rooted in
the natures and situation of each, and probably called into action by
particular provocations now unknown. The disposition of Sussex was
courageous and sincere; his spirit high, his judgement clear and strong,
his whole character honorable and upright. In the arts of a courtier,
which he despised, he was confessedly inferior to his wily adversary; in
all the qualifications of a statesman and a soldier he vastly excelled
him.

Sussex was endowed with penetration sufficient to detect, beneath the
thick folds of hypocrisy and artifice in which he had involved them, the
monstrous vices of Leicester's disposition; and he could not without
indignation and disgust behold a princess whose blood he shared, whose
character he honored, and whose service he had himself embraced with
pure devotion, the dupe of an impostor so despicable and so pernicious.
That influence which he saw Leicester abuse to the dishonor of the queen
and the detriment of the country, he undertook to overthrow by fair and
public means, and, so far as appears, without motives of personal
interest or ambition:--thus far all was well, and for the effort,
whether successful or not, he merited the public thanks. But there
mingled in the bosom of the high-born Sussex an illiberal disdain of
the origin of Dudley, with a just abhorrence of his character and
conduct.

He was wont to say of him, that two ancestors were all that he could
number, his father and grandfather; both traitors and enemies to their
country. His sarcasms roused in Leicester an animosity which he did not
attempt to disguise: with the exception of Cecil and his friends, who
stood neu