en advised to show a glad and cheerful countenance; which she did in
her best apparel, saying, that the joyful news of the queen her sister's
delivery of a fair son, which I had sent her by secretary Cecil, had
recovered her out of a heavy sickness which she had lain under for
fifteen days. Therefore she welcomed me with a merry volt, and thanked
me for the diligence I had used in hasting to give her that welcome
intelligence." &c. "The next day her majesty sent unto me her letter,
with the present of a fair chain."

Resolved to perform with a good grace the part which she had assumed,
Elizabeth accepted with alacrity the office of sponsor to the prince of
Scotland, sending thither as her proxies the earl of Bedford, Mr. Carey
son of lord Hunsdon, and other knights and gentlemen; who met with so
cordial a reception from Mary,--now at open variance with her husband,
and therefore desirous of support from England,--as to provoke the
jealousy of the French ambassadors. The present of the royal godmother
was a font of pure gold worth above one thousand pounds; in return for
which, rings, rich chains of diamond and pearl, and other jewels were
liberally bestowed upon her substitutes.

The birth of her son lent a vast accession of strength to the party of
the queen of Scots in England; and Melvil was commissioned to convey
back to her from several of the principal personages of the court, warm
professions of an attachment to her person and interests, which the
jealousy of their mistress compelled them to dissemble. Elizabeth, on
her part, was more than ever disturbed by suspicions on this head, which
were kept in constant activity by the secret informations of the armies
of spies whom it was her self-tormenting policy to set over the words
and actions of the Scottish queen and her English partisans. The more
she learned of the influence privately acquired by Mary amongst her
subjects, the more, of course, she feared and hated her, and the
stronger became her determination never to give her additional
consequence by an open recognition of her right of succession. At the
same time she was fully sensible that no other person could be thought
of as the inheritrix of her crown; and she resolved, perhaps wisely, to
maintain on this subject an inflexible silence: this policy, however,
connected with her perseverance in a state of celibacy, began to awaken
in her people an anxiety respecting their future destinies, which, being
artf