ough a
loyal subject of her Majesty, and one who hath borne arms at Tilbury
Fort in defence of her Majesty, it inflamed my choler, as a plain and
blunt man, that her Mightiness should so degrade her dignity. Howbeit,
as a man who hath his way to make in the world, I kept mine eyes well
upon the anticks of the Great, while my Lord joined the group of
maskers and their follies. I recognized her Majesty's presence by her
discourse in three languages to as many Ambassadors that were
present--though I marked well that she had not forgotten her own
tongue, calling one of her ladies "a sluttish wench," nor her English
spirit in cuffing my Lord of Essex's ears for some indecorum--which, as
a plain man myself, curt in speech and action, did rejoice me greatly.
But I must relate one feat, the like of which I never saw in England
before or since. There was a dance of the maskers, and in the midst of
it her Majesty asked the Ambassador from Spayne if he had seen the
latest French dance. He replied that he had not. Whereupon Her Most
Excellent Majesty skipt back a pace and forward a pace, and lifting her
hoop, delivered a kick at his Excellency's hat which sent it flying the
space of a good English ell above his head! Howbeit so great was the
acclamation that her Majesty was graciously moved to repeat it to my
Lord of Leicester, but, tripping back, her high heels caught in her
farthingale, and she would have fallen on the ice, but for that my
Lord, with exceeding swiftness and dexterity, whisked his cloak from
his shoulder, spreading it under her, and so received her body in its
folds on the ice, without himself touching her Majesty's person. Her
Majesty was greatly pleased at this, and bade my Lord buy another cloak
at her cost, though it swallowed an estate; but my Lord replyed, after
the lying fashion of the time, that it was honour enough for him to be
permitted to keep it after "it had received her Royal person." I know
that this hap hath been partly related of another person--the shipman
Raleigh--but I tell such as deny me that they lie in their teeth, for
I, John Longbowe, have cause--miserable cause enough, I warrant--to
remember it, and my Lord can bear me out! For, spite of his fair
speeches, when he was quit of the Royal presence, he threw me his wet
and bedraggled cloak and bade me change it with him for mine own, which
was dry and warm. And it was this simple act which wrought the
lamentable and cruel deed of w