he czar to propose to his own sovereign certain
secret articles in which this prince was more deeply interested than in
any commercial matters, and which he deemed it unsafe to commit to the
fidelity or discretion of his own ambassadors.

Ivan, partly by a marked preference shown to foreigners, which his own
barbarians could not forgive, partly by his many acts of violence and
cruelty, had highly incensed his subjects against him. In the preceding
year, a violent insurrection had nearly hurled him from the throne; and
still apprehensive of some impending disaster, he now proposed to the
queen of England a league offensive and defensive, of which he was
anxious to make it an article, that she should bind herself by oath to
grant a kind and honorable reception in her dominions to himself, his
wife and children, should any untoward event compel them to quit their
country. But that never-failing caution which, in all the complication
and diversity of her connexions with foreign powers, withheld Elizabeth
from ever, in a single instance, committing herself beyond the power of
retreat, caused her to waive compliance with the extraordinary proposal
of Ivan. She entertained his ambassadors however with the utmost
cordiality, gratified his wishes in every point where prudence would
permit, and finally succeeded, by the adroitness of her management, in
securing for her country, without sacrifice or hazard on her own part,
every real benefit which an intercourse with such a people and such a
sovereign appeared capable of affording. To have come off with advantage
in a trial of diplomatic skill with a barbarous czar of Muscovy, was
however an exploit of which a civilized politician would be ashamed to
boast,--on him no glory could be won,--and we may imagine Elizabeth
turning from him with a kind of disdain to an antagonist more worthy of
her talents.

The king and court of France were at this time subjected to the guidance
of the execrable Catherine dei Medici. To this woman the religious
differences which then agitated Europe were in themselves perfectly
indifferent, and on more than one occasion she had allowed it to be
perceived that they were so: but a close and dispassionate study of the
state of parties in her son's kingdom, had at length convinced her that
it was necessary to the establishment of his authority and her own
consequence, that the Hugonot faction should be crushed, and she stood
secretly prepared and resolved