 transpired in time, and the traitors are taken. The chief object of her indigna∣tion must of course be him she so greatly favoured. Convinced you are the only cause of his rebellious practices, nothing but your making another choice can save him from expiating them on the block. A

fond weakness renders Elizabeth still anxi∣ous to preserve him. For my own part I confess the safest remedy I shall always think the best."—"Ah, let him live, groaned I, adopting at once the train of ideas he so artfully arranged, though not for me! Even Elizabeth is merciful, and shall I then condemn him? Rob the world of an unequalled ornament, only because I am not permitted to possess it?—I will no more haunt her slumbers—I will no more gild his—of what conse∣quence is the name I am called by during the few days I linger in this miserable world? Inform me, my Lord, but how I can save him."—"The same reasons that concur in obliging the Queen to separate you and Essex, said the crafty Burleigh, will equally prevent her from matching you with any man gifted with his aspiring qualities: yet as it is not her wish wholly to debase you, Lord Arlington was to me the messenger of her will;" (I shud∣dered at the fatal name) "the bounded capacity he possesses is one motive for her chusing him, as it ensures her own safety;

and his titles and fortunes another, as those are distinctions she is not willing to deprive you of. You marry him, or he returns directly, and his return is the sig∣nal for Lord Essex's execution."
Yet weak and unrecovered, my mind wanted firmness to enter into all the rea∣sons which should regulate my conduct. Alas, I saw no more of my own fate, than was inseparably interwoven with that of my lover.—Urged by the generous ex∣cesses of which I knew his heart capable, he has for my sake then endangered his honor, liberty, and life. Perhaps that danger is exaggerated, hinted prudence—but oh, if not—if actuated by fear and rage Elizabeth should condemn him to the block, as she already had my father, for no greater crime—my wounded soul shrunk from the bare idea—long faintings and delirium followed—fancy realized every image fraud had presented; I seem∣ed to behold every moment the chosen of my heart tried, sentenced, executed; I drenched the maimed, yet beauteous form my eyes for ever worshipped in my tears,

and hardly could be persuaded, during my lucid intervals, that he yet lived, and that his fate still depended on
