424 EXTRACTS FROM THE NOTE-BOOK little arts of pleasing to which Harrington now applied himself, some amusing hints may be gathered out of the following extracts taken from a notebook kept by himself. Her "I am to send good store of news from the country for her highness entertainment . . . . highness loveth merry tales." ... "The queen stood up and bade me reach forth my arm to rest her thereon. O! what sweet burden to my next song. Petrarch shall eke out good matter for this business." "The queen loveth to see me in my new frize jerkin; and saith 'tis well enough cut. I will have another made liken to it. I do remember she spit on sir Matthew's fringed cloth; and said the fool's wit was gone to rags.-Heaven spare me from such jibing!" "I must turn my poor wits towards my suit for the lands in the north ..... I must go in an early. hour, before her highness hath special matters brought up to counsel on. I must go before the breakfast covers are placed, and stand uncovered as her highness cometh forth her chamber; then kneel and say, God save your majesty! I crave your ear at what hour may suit for your servant to meet your blessed countenance. Thus will I gain her favor to follow to the auditory. "Trust not a friend to do or say, In that yourself can sue or pray." The lands alluded to in the last extract, formed a large estate in the north of England, which an a See Nuga Antiquæ. OF SIR JOHN HARRINGTON. 425 ancestor of Harrington had forfeited by his adherence to the house of York during the civil wars; and which he was now endeavouring to recover. This further mention of the business occurs in one of his letters. "Yet I will adventure to give her majesty five hundred pounds in money and some pretty jewel or garment, as you shall advise; only praying her majesty to further my suit with some of her learned counsel; which I pray you to find some proper time to move in; this some hold as a dangerous adventure, but five and twenty manors do well justify my trying it." How notorious must have been the avarice and venality of a sovereign, before such a mode of ensuring success in a lawsuit could have entered into the imagination of a courtier! But the fortunes of Harrington, as of persons of more importance, now become involved in the state of Irish affairs, to which the attention of the reader must immediately be directed. CHAPTER XXVII. 1599 TO 1603. Irish affairs.-Essex appointed lord deputy. His letter to the queen.-Letter of Markham to Harrington.-Departure of Essex and proceedings in Ireland.-His letter to the privy council,-conferences with Tyrone,-unexpected arrival at court.-Behaviour of the queen.-State of par ́ties.—Letters of sir J. Harrington.—Further particulars respecting Essex.-His letter of submission.-Relentlessness of the queen.-Sir John Hayward's history.-Second better of Essex.Censure passed upon him in council. Anecdote of the queen.-Essex liberated.-Reception of a Flemish ambassador.-Discontent of Raleigh. Traits of the queen.-Letter of sir Robert Sidney to sir John Harrington-Crisis of the fortune of Essex-Conduct of lord Montjoy. Proceedings at Essex house.-Revolt of Essex. -He defends his house.—Is taken and committed to the Tower. His trial and that of lord Southampton.-Conduct of Bacon.-Confessions of Essex.-Behaviour of the queen.-Death of Essex.-Fate of his adherents.—Reception of the Scotch ambassadors.-Interview of the queen and Sully.-Irish affairs.-Letter of sir John Harrington.-A parliament summoned.-Affair of monopolies.Quarrel between the Jesuits and secular priests.—Conversation of the queen respecting Essex.-Letter of sir J. Harrington.--Submission of Tyrone.-Melancholy of Elizabeth-Story of the ring.-Her death.-Additional traits of her character.-Her eulogy by Bishop Hall. THE death in September 1598 of Philip II. and the succession of the feeble Philip III., under whom the Spanish monarchy advanced with accelerated steps towards its decline; had finally released the queen from all apprehensions of foreign invasion and left her at liberty to turn her whole attention to the pacification of Ireland. The state of that island was in every respect deplorable :-the whole province of Ulster in open rebellion under Tyrone;the rest of the country only waiting for the succours from the pope and the king of Spain, which the credulous natives were still taught to expect, to join openly in the revolt; and in the meantime reduced to such a state of despair by innumerable oppressions and by the rumor of further severities meditated by the queen of England, that it seemed prepared to oppose the most obstinate resistance to every measure of government. In what manner and by whom, this wretched province should be brought back to its allegiance, had been the subject of frequent and earnest debates in the privycouncil; in which Essex had vehemently reprobated the conduct of former governors in wasting time on inferior objects, instead of first undertaking the reduction of Tyrone; and appears to have spared no pains to impress the queen with an opinion of the superior justness of his own views of the subject. Elizabeth believed, and with reason, that she discovered in lord Montjoy talents not unequal to the arduous office of lord deputy at so critical a juncture; but when the greater part of her council appeared to concur in the choice, Essex insinuated a variety of objections;-that the experience of Montjoy in military matters was small;-that neither in the Low Countries nor in Bretagne, 428 ESSEX APPOINTED LORD-DEPUTY. where he had served, had he attained to any principal or independent command;-that his retainers were few or none; his purse inadequately furnished for the first expenses of so high an appointment; and that he was too much addicted to a sedentary and studious life. By this artful enumeration of the deficiencies of Montjoy, he was clearly understood to intimate his own superior fitness for the office. The queen, notwithstanding certain suspi cions which had been infused into her of danger in committing to Essex the command of an army; and notwithstanding the unwillingness which she still felt to deprive herself of his presence, appears to have adopted with eagerness this suggestion of her favorite ;-for she held in high estimation both his talents and his good fortune. Montjoy promptly retired from a competition in which he must be unsuccessful; the adherents of the earl, except a few of the more sagacious, eagerly forwarded his appointment with imprudent eulogiums of his valor and his genius; and still more imprudent anticipations of his certain and complete success. His ene mies, desirous of his absence and hopeful of his failure, concurred with no less zeal in the promotion of his wishes; and he soon found himself importuned on every side to accept the command. But it now became his part to make objections ;perhaps he began to open his eyes to the difficulties to be confronted in Ireland;-perhaps he penetrated too late the designs and expectations of his adversaries at home;-perhaps, for his character was not free from artifice, he chose by a display of reluctance to enhance in the eyes of his sovereign the |