by policy
discredited and disgraced), were greatly countenanced." The letter
writer afterwards mentions in a splenetic style the envoy from Monsieur,
one Baqueville a Norman, "with four or five of Monsieur's youths," who
attended the queen and were "well entertained and regarded." After them,
he says, came M. Rambouillet from the French king, brother of the
cardinal, who had not long before written vilely against the queen, and
whose entertainment, it seemed to him, was not so good as that of the
others[82].

[Note 82: "Illustrations," by Lodge, vol. ii. p. 187.]

The queen was about this time deprived by death of an old and faithful
counsellor, in the person of sir Thomas Smith one of the principal
secretaries of state. This eminent person, the author of a work "on the
Commonwealth of England," still occasionally consulted, and in various
ways a great benefactor to letters in his day, was one of the few who
had passed at once with safety and credit through all the perils and
revolutions of the three preceding reigns. His early proficiency at
college obtained for Smith the patronage of Henry VIII., at whose
expense he was sent to complete his studies in Italy; and he took at
Padua the degree of Doctor of Laws. Resuming on his return his residence
at Cambridge, he united his efforts with those of Cheke for reforming
the pronunciation of the Greek language. Afterwards he furnished an
example of attachment to his mother-tongue which among classical
scholars has found too few imitators, by giving to the public a work on
English orthography and pronunciation; objects as yet almost totally
neglected by his countrymen, and respecting which, down to a much later
period, no approach to system or uniformity prevailed, but, on the
contrary, a vagueness, a rudeness and an ignorance disgraceful to a
lettered people.

Though educated in the civil law, Smith now took deacon's orders and
accepted a rectory, and the deanery of Carlisle. His principles secretly
began to incline towards the reformers, and he lent such protection as
he was able to those who in the latter years of Henry VIII. underwent
persecution for the avowal of similar sentiments.

Protector Somerset patronized him: under his administration he was
knighted notwithstanding his deacon's orders, and became the colleague
of Cecil as secretary of state. On the accession of Mary he was stripped
of the lucrative offices which he held, but a small pension was assigned
him