to say that when she died, Calais would be found written on her heart.

But nothing prospered in this wretched reign. Bad seasons had destroyed the harvests, year after year; they were followed by a virulent fever, which, in 1558, carried off so many of the country people, that in several places the corn rotted on the ground for want of labourers to gather it in. Mary's prime minister, Gardiner, was dead; Cardinal Pole was dying; and the queen herself was sinking rapidly. But the persecution raged with unabated fury. Six days before Mary breathed her last, three women and two men were burnt in one fire at Canterbury, and the jails were filled with prisoners who expected daily their summons to the stake. God heard the sorrowful sighing of the captives, and loosed those that were appointed to death. On the 17th November, 1558, to the unspeakable relief of her subjects, Queen Mary died. That same afternoon, the bells of all the churches in London rang joyfully for the accession of her sister; every open space was lit up with bonfires; and the citizens set out tables in the streets and invited every one who went by to feast and make merry in honour of Queen Elizabeth.

CHAPTER XLI.

QUEEN ELIZABETH, 1558.—POPERY ABOLISHED IN ENGLAND.-ELIZABETH'S NAVY.-HER NEW COINAGE.

(From 1558 to 1568.)

ELIZABETH was twenty-five years of age when she came to the throne. She was tall, handsome and majestic; and the queenly dignity of her behaviour

ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH.

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was mingled with a kind and cheerful condescension, which won all hearts: her subjects loved as much as they reverenced her. She was a princess of extraordinary sagacity, and gave proof of it on the first day of her reign by choosing for her chief adviser Sir William Cecil, afterwards the famous Lord Burleigh: with him she joined Sir Nicolas Bacon, and some years afterwards Sir Francis Walsingham. These were three of the wisest statesmen who have ever helped to govern England; and under their direction the rule of Elizabeth was prosperous at home and glorious in the eyes of foreign nations.

The first care of the queen was to set free all persons who were in prison for their religious opinions, Leave was at once given to use English instead of Latin in the Church Services; and parliament was summoned to meet as soon as possible that all things relating to the Church might be set in order.

now.

The day before her coronation, Queen Elizabeth made a grand progress through the City of London, and was everywhere "greeted by the prayers, the shouts, the tender words and uplifted hands of the people." On occasions like these London used to present a gayer appearance than we can well imagine The streets were narrow, and dark, because the upper stories of the houses projected so far beyond the lower that persons passing in the street beneath could see but a very narrow strip of sky overhead: but when the sovereign visited the City these dingy streets were turned into gaily decorated avenues. Arches of flowers and green boughs were thrown across them, flags waved on the roofs, and the outside of the houses was covered by hangings

of tapestry, silk, and velvet suspended from the topmost windows.

Elizabeth advanced at a slow pace through this gay scene, returning with many kind words the greetings of her people, and often pausing to look at the pageants which they had erected for her entertainment. One of these represented Time, under the figure of an old man issuing from a cave and carrying a scythe and hour-glass; Time led by the hand his daughter Truth, and Truth presented to the queen a book on which was written The Word of Truth: it was an English Bible. Elizabeth took it reverently in her hands, kissed it, and laid it upon her heart, much to the joy of the beholders; many of whom had not dared, during the reign of her sister, to let it be known that they read the Bible, lest they should be accused to the bishops of heresy.

As soon as parliament came together, the reformation of the Church was vigorously carried forward. England once more, and, we may hope, for ever, renounced the authority of the pope; the queen was declared supreme governor both in Church and State; the mass was abolished, and the Book of Common Prayer was restored in all the churches. Nearly all the parish priests conformed to the new laws; fourteen bishops refused to do so, and were deprived of their sees, but no harm was done to them. Bonner was sent to the Marshalsea prison, where he had leave to employ himself as he liked, and even to go out if he chose; but his prison was his castle, and he took care to keep within it: for his cruelties had so exasperated the people that they would have stoned him if he had shown himself in the streets.

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The new bishops were chosen from among the learned and pious men who had been forced to hide themselves, or to flee to foreign countries, during the reign of Mary. Two of them, Bishop Jewel and Archbishop Parker, became especially famous for their wisdom and for the great services which they rendered to the Church.

Though several years of peace and prosperity followed these changes, Elizabeth knew that she could not hope to preserve her kingdom in safety and honour without being well prepared for a time of war. The navy had dwindled away during the reign of her sister; Elizabeth repaired the evil without loss of time. She built ships of war, fortified the banks of the Medway where they rode at anchor, and established wellstocked arsenals in the chief towns along the coast. She encouraged her subjects to make gunpowder, instead of buying it from foreigners as they had been used to do. The merchants and people of the seaport towns followed their sovereign's example, and built so many ships, that in the fourth year of her reign Elizabeth was able to send to sea a fleet with twenty thousand fighting men on board.

She had already done another thing which greatly pleased and benefited her subjects. In the time of Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth, the government had mixed so much base metal with the silver out of which the money was coined, that the pieces of money called crowns, shillings, sixpences, &c., were not really worth half their pretended value.

Elizabeth caused plenty of new good silver to be coined, and then she ordered all the people to bring their base money into the Royal Mint, and gave them

the good money instead of it. No copper was coined in England then; it was all gold or silver. There were silver pennies and groats as well as sixpences.

In the fifth year of Queen Elizabeth, she ordered the Bible and Book of Common Prayer to be translated into Welsh.

CHAPTER XLII.

SOME OF THE CHIEF MEN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH'S TIME.

ELIZABETH reigned nearly forty-five years, of which the first ten were by far the most peaceful. During the remainder of the period, the quiet of the country was more or less disturbed by the plots which English and foreign papists formed against the government. The root of these evils was the enmity of the pope and of the rulers of France and Spain to the Protestant queen and people of England. These powers had banded themselves in a league to root out the reformed religion.

Before we can proceed with the history of Elizabeth's reign, it is necessary to know a little about the affairs of some other countries, and especially of Scotland. Something must be said, also, of the great men whose wisdom and bravery rendered this period of our history so glorious.

First, there were the great sea-captains who carried the flag of England into regions which no Englishman had ever seen before. And not only seamen engaged in these voyages; but gentlemen of large estate, knights, and courtiers, all took the greatest delight in finding out new countries, and also in attacking and