
devotion. He had the Fairy King's superiority over his friends and dependants,
and saw much which they could not. The character of his mistress was intimately
known to him; it was his minute and studied acquaintance with her humours, as
well as her noble faculties, which, joined to his powerful mental qualities, and
his eminent external accomplishments, had raised him so high in her favour; and
it was that very knowledge of her disposition which led him to apprehend at
every turn some sudden and overwhelming disgrace. Leicester was like a pilot
possessed of a chart, which points out to him all the peculiarities of his
navigation, but which exhibits so many shoals, breakers, and reefs of rocks,
that his anxious eye reaps little more from observing them, than to be convinced
that his final escape can be little else than miraculous.
    In fact, Queen Elizabeth had a character strangely compounded of the
strongest masculine sense, with those foibles which are chiefly supposed proper
to the female sex. Her subjects had the full benefit of her virtues, which far
predominated over her weaknesses; but her courtiers, and those about her person,
had often to sustain sudden and embarrassing turns of caprice, and the sallies
of a temper which was both jealous and despotic. She was the nursing-mother of
her people, but she was also the true daughter of Henry VIII.; and though early
sufferings and an excellent education had repressed and modified, they had not
altogether destroyed, the hereditary temper of that »hard-ruled King.« - »Her
mind,« says her witty god-son, Sir John Harrington, who had experienced both the
smiles and the frowns which he describes, »was ofttime like the gentle air that
cometh from the western point in a summer's morn - 'twas sweet and refreshing to
all around her. Her speech did win all affections. And again, she could put
forth such alterations, when obedience was lacking, as left no doubting whose
daughter she was. When she smiled, it was a pure sunshine, that every one did
choose to bask in, if they could; but anon came a storm, from a sudden gathering
of clouds, and the thunder fell, in a wondrous manner, on all alike.«18
    This variability of disposition, as Leicester well knew, was chiefly
formidable to those who had a share in the Queen's affections, and who depended
rather on her personal regard, than on the indispensable services which they
could render to her councils and her crown. The favour of Burleigh, or of
Walsingham, of a
