 myself, after exhausting all my rhetoric in vain to drive him from me.—Oh Leicester! what was the wrath of Elizabeth then, to that she would feel could she explore the whole of this secret?" I entreated Ellinor to write me word my absence was much remaeked, and at last returned once more a voluntary victim.
A sad and silent admiration was the only expression of my features at sight of Sir Philip; he sighed at the compliment indispensable due, which his bride received with a cold contempt. To a countenance naturally harsh and inquisitive, however beautiful, Miss Walsingham had always united a temper, proud, passionate, and peevish. Her strong attachment to Sir Philip, had in all instances, where he was concerned, subdued for a time, or, veiled those failings. He could not be

ignorant of a passion he had so often been rallied upon, and the moment he found it was not possible for him to make his own choice, he generously resolved to indulge hers. His motives could not be doubted, as all the Court knew she had no fortune, and every body saw it was in her power to become the happiest of women. —But alas, it was not in her nature—far from seeking to win upon his heart, by a silent indulgence of all his little foibles, she wearied him with importunate fondness, and whenever business or weariness drove him from home, employed the interval in fomenting violent passions, with which she seldom failed to overwhelm him on his return. Incapable of bending so noble a mind to the little triumph of conquering a low one, and as incapable of regulating his life by-the narrow rules she would have laid down for him, he saw no alternative but the pursuit of glory, and sollicited to be sent to his government of Flushing.

Oh, pardon me, beloved Leicester, the bitter tears I so often shed for the gallant Sidney. —Ah why, had he not chosen my sister? She was free, she had a hand, a heart, a person worthy his; she would have crowned his days with happiness and his grave with honor. Alas, in the weak pride of humanity we seek to new model the distinctions of nature, and insolently oppose our limited faculties to omniscience.
New disturbances in the Netherlands, now obliged Lord Leicester, as commander in chief, to accompany his nephew. I saw them both depart, with a reluctance so extreme as foreboded some calamity. The generous Sidney understood my silence, my conflicts, my wishes. "Rely on my cares—rely on my honor, said he at parting,
