tle as
incontrovertible. He now represented to his party, that Cecil was
secretly inclined to the house of Suffolk; and that no measure favorable
to the reputation or authority of the queen of Scots could be carried
whilst he enjoyed the confidence of his mistress. By these suggestions,
the duke, unfortunately for himself, was led to sanction an attempt
against the power and reputation of this great minister.

Leicester, who had long hated his virtues; the old corrupt statesmen
Winchester, Pembroke, and Arundel; and the discontented catholic peers
Northumberland and Westmorland, eagerly joined in the plot. It was
agreed to attack the secretary in the privy-council, on the ground of
his having advised the detention of the money going into the Low
Countries for the service of the king of Spain, and thus exposing the
nation to the danger of a war with this potentate; and Throgmorton is
said to have advised that, whatever he answered, they should find some
pretext for sending him to the Tower; after which, he said, it would be
easy to compass his overthrow.

But the penetration of Elizabeth enabled her to appretiate justly, with
a single exception, the principles, characters, and motives of all her
servants; and she knew that, while his enemies were exclusively attached
to their own interests, Cecil was attached also to the interests of his
prince, his country, and his religion; that while others,--with that
far-sighted selfishness which involves men in so many intrigues, usually
rendered fruitless or needless by the after-course of events,--were bent
on securing to themselves the good graces of her successor, he was
content to depend on her alone; that while others were the courtiers,
the flatterers, or the ministers, of the queen, he, and perhaps he only,
was the friend of Elizabeth. All the rest she knew that she could
replace at a moment;--him never. Secret information was carried to her
of all that her council were contriving, and had almost executed,
against the secretary: full of indignation she hurried to their meeting,
where she was not expected, and by her peremptory mandate put an instant
stop to their proceedings; making Leicester himself sensible, by a
warmth which did her honor, that the man who held the first place in her
esteem was by no one to be injured with impunity.

The earl of Sussex, the true friend of Norfolk, and never his abettor in
designs of which his sober judgement could discern all the crimi