attempts. It was even said that the earl had actually hired one of the
queen's guard to assassinate the envoy, and that the design had only
miscarried by chance. However this might be, her majesty, on account of
the spirit of enmity displayed towards him by the people, to whom the
idea of the French match was ever odious, found it necessary, by a
proclamation, to take Simier under her special protection. It was about
this time that as the queen was taking the air on the Thames, attended
by this Frenchman and by several of her courtiers, a shot was fired into
her barge, by which one of the rowers was severely wounded. Some
supposed that it was aimed at Simier, others at the queen herself; but
the last opinion was immediately silenced by the wise and gracious
declaration of her majesty, "that she would believe nothing of her
subjects that parents would not believe of their children."

After due inquiry the shot was found to have been accidental, and the
person who had been the cause of the mischief, though condemned to
death, was pardoned. Such at least is the account of the affair
transmitted to us by contemporary writers; but it still remains a
mystery how the man came to be capitally condemned if innocent, or to be
pardoned if guilty.

Leicester, from all these circumstances, had incurred so much obloquy at
court, and found himself so coldly treated by the queen herself, that in
a letter to Burleigh he offered, or threatened, to banish himself; well
knowing, perhaps, that the proposal would not be accepted; while the
French prince, now created duke of Anjou, adroitly seized the moment of
the earl's disgrace to try the effect of personal solicitations on the
heart of Elizabeth. He arrived quite unexpectedly, and almost without
attendants, at the gate of her palace at Greenwich; experienced a very
gracious reception; and after several long conferences with the queen
alone, of which the particulars never transpired, took his leave and
returned home, re-committing his cause to the skilful management of his
own agent, and the discussion of his brother's ambassadors.

Long and frequent meetings of the privy-council were now held, by
command of her majesty, for the discussion of the question of marriage;
from the minutes of which some interesting details may be recovered.

The earl of Sussex was still, as ever, strongly in favor of the match;
and chiefly, as it appears, from an apprehension that France and Spain
might ot