after-life. An extraordinary solidity of
character with great vivacity of parts had distinguished him from a
child, and fortune conspired with genius to bring him early before the
public eye.

He was nephew and presumptive heir to the earl of Leicester, by whom he
was in a manner adopted; and thus patronized, his rapid advancement was
anticipated as a matter of course.

It was the practice of that day for parents in higher life to dispose of
their children in marriage at an age now justly accounted immature[75];
and no sooner had young Sidney completed his fourteenth year than
arrangements were made for his union with Anne Cecil, daughter of the
secretary. Why the connexion never took place we do not learn: sir Henry
Sidney in a letter to Cecil says, with reference to this affair; "I am
sorry that you find coldness any where in proceeding, where such good
liking appeared in the beginning; but, for my part, I was never more
ready to perfect that affair than presently I am." &c. Shortly after,
the lady, unfortunately for herself, became the wife of the earl of
Oxford; and Sidney, still unfettered by matrimonial engagements,
obtained license to travel, and reached Paris in May 1572. Charles IX.,
in consideration no doubt of the influence of his uncle at the English
court, gave him the appointment of a gentleman of his bed-chamber, a
fortnight only before the massacre. On that night of horrors Sidney
took shelter in the house of Walsingham, and thus escaped all personal
danger; but his after-conduct fully proved how indelible was the
impression left upon his mind of the monstrous wickedness of the French
royal family, and the disgrace and misery which an alliance with it must
entail on his queen and country.

[Note 75: Thus we find sir George Manners, ancestor of the dukes of
Rutland, who died in 1513, bequeathing to each of his unmarried
daughters a portion of three hundred marks to be paid at the time of
their marriage, or within _four_ years after if the husband be not
twenty-one years of age; or at such time as the husband came of age.

Collins's "Peerage," by sir E. Brydges.]

He readily obeyed his uncle's directions to quit France without delay;
and, proceeding to Frankfort, there formed a highly honorable and
beneficial friendship with the virtuous Hubert Languet, who opened to
him at once his heart and his purse. The remonstrances of this patron,
who dreaded to excess for his youthful friend the artifices of th