doubtful, whether there could
be any more surety for her and her realm than to have her marry and have
a child of her own body to inherit, and so to continue the line of king
Henry the eighth; and she said she condemned herself of simplicity in
committing this matter to be argued by them, for that she thought, to
have rather had an universal request made to her to proceed in this
marriage, than to have made doubt of it; and being much troubled
herewith she requested" the bearers of this message "to forbear her till
the afternoon."

On their return, she repeated her former expressions of displeasure;
then endeavoured at some length to refute the objections brought against
the match; and finally, her "great misliking" of all opposition, and her
earnest desire for the marriage, being reported to her faithful council,
they agreed, after long consultations, to offer her their services in
furtherance of it, should such really be her pleasure[84].

[Note 84: "Burleigh Papers," by Murdin, _passim._]

But the country possessed some men less obsequious than
privy-councillors, who could not endure to stand by in silence and
behold the great public interests here at stake surrendered in slavish
deference to the fond fancy of a romantic woman, caught by the image of
a passion which she was no longer of an age to inspire, and which she
ought to have felt it an indecorum to entertain. Of this number, to his
immortal honor, was Philip Sidney. This young gentleman bore at the time
the courtly office of cup-bearer to the queen, and was looking for
further advancement at her hands; and as on a former occasion he had not
scrupled to administer some food to her preposterous desire of personal
admiration, Elizabeth, when she applied to him for his opinion on her
marriage, assuredly did so in the hope and expectation of hearing from
him something more graceful to her ears than the language of truth and
wisdom. But Sidney had beheld with his own eyes the horrors of the Paris
massacre; he had imbibed with all the eagerness of a youthful and
generous mind the principles of his friend the excellent Hubert Languet,
one of the ablest advocates of the protestant cause; and he had since,
on his embassy to Germany and Holland, enjoyed the favor and
contemplated the illustrious virtues of William prince of Orange its
heroic champion.

To this sacred cause the purposed marriage must prove, as he well knew,
deeply injurious, and to the reputation of