ip his natural father, and to know his friends; without any
curiosity of human learning, which, without the fear of God, I see doth
much hurt to all youth in this time and age. My lord, I pray you bear
with my scribbling, which I think your lordship shall hardly read, and
yet I would not use my man's hand in such a matter as this is. [From
Hampton Court, 25th Dec. 1575.]

"Your lordship's most assured at command

"W. BURLEIGH[76]."

[Note 76: "Illustrations" by Lodge.]

* * * * *

A similar caution to that of lord Burleigh was not observed in the
disposal of her daughters by the countess of Shrewsbury; a woman
remarkable above all her contemporaries for a violent, restless and
intriguing spirit, and an inordinate thirst of money and of sway. She
brought to effect in 1574 a marriage between Elizabeth Cavendish, her
daughter by a former husband, and Charles Stuart, brother of Darnley and
next to the king of Scots in the order of succession to the crowns both
of England and Scotland. Notwithstanding the rooted enmity between Mary
and the house of Lenox, this union was supposed to be the result of some
private intrigue between lady Shrewsbury and the captive queen; and in
consequence of it Elizabeth committed to custody for some time, both the
mother of the bride and the unfortunate countess of Lenox, doomed to
expiate by such a variety of sufferings the unpardonable offence, in the
eyes of Elizabeth, of having given heirs to the British sceptres.

A signal occasion presented itself to the queen in 1575 of demonstrating
to all neighbouring powers, that whatever suspicions her close and
somewhat crooked system of policy might now and then have excited,
self-defence was in reality its genuine principle and single object; and
that the clear and comprehensive view which she had taken of her own
true interests, joined to the habitual caution of her character, would
ever restrain her from availing herself of the most tempting
opportunities of aggrandizement at their expense.

The provinces of Holland and Zealand, goaded into revolt by the bigotry
and barbarity of Philip of Spain, had from the first experienced in the
English nation, and even in Elizabeth herself, a disposition to
encourage and shelter them; and despairing of being able longer to
maintain alone the unequal contest which they had provoked, yet resolute
to return no more under the tyranny of a detested master, they now
embraced