s it appears, the villanies of
this celebrated favorite! But his consummate art was successful in
throwing over these and other transactions of his life, a veil of doubt
and mystery which time itself has proved unable entirely to remove.

Hatton was at this time ill, and lord Talbot mentions that the queen
went daily to visit him, but that a party with which Leicester was
thought to co-operate, was endeavouring to bring forwards Mr. Edward
Dyer to supplant him in her majesty's favor. This gentleman, it seems,
had been for two years in disgrace; and as he had suffered during the
same period from a bad state of health, the queen was made to believe
that the continuance of her displeasure was the cause of his malady, and
that his recovery was without her pardon hopeless. This was taking her
by her weak side; she loved to imagine herself the dispenser of life and
death to her devoted servants, and she immediately dispatched to the
sick gentleman a comfortable message, on receipt of which he was made
whole. The letter-writer observes, to the honor of lord Burleigh, that
he concerned himself as usual only in state affairs, and suffered all
these love-matters and petty intrigues to pass without notice before his
eyes.

All the caution, however, and all the devotedness of this great minister
were insufficient to preserve him, on the following occasion, from the
unworthy suspicions of his mistress. The queen of Scots had this year
with difficulty obtained permission to resort to the baths of Buxton for
the recovery of her health; and a similar motive led thither at the same
time the lord-treasurer. Elizabeth marked the coincidence; and when, a
year or two afterwards, it occurred for the second time, her displeasure
broke forth: she openly accused her minister of seeking occasions of
entering into intelligence with Mary by means of the earl of Shrewsbury
and his lady, and it was not without difficulty that he was able to
appease her. This striking fact is thus related by Burleigh himself in a
remarkable letter to the earl of Shrewsbury.

* * * * *

_Lord Burleigh to the earl of Shrewsbury._

"My very good lord,

"My most hearty and due commendations done, I cannot sufficiently
express in words the inward hearty affection that I conceive by your
lordship's friendly offer of the marriage of your younger son; and that
in such a friendly sort, by your own letter, and, as your lordship
writeth, th