her sister, to seek liberty of conscience, as impoverished exiles, in foreign lands.

It was not, however, every one who was so fortunate as to escape. Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland, brother to the unfortunate earl Thomas, who had been beheaded, for his share in the northern rebellion, was sent to the Tower, on pretext of having implicated himself in the Throckmorton plot, Shelly, an acquaintance of his, having admitted something to this effect, in a confession extorted by the rack. After having been detained more than a year in close confinement, without being brought to trial, the earl was found one morning dead in his bed, with three slugs lodged in his heart. His keeper had been superseded, the night before, by a servant of sir Christopher Hatton; therefore suspicions were entertained that he had been murdered, but the jury brought in a verdict of felo-de-se, it having been deposed that he had been heard to swear, with an awful oath, “that the queen," whom he irreverently designated by a name only proper to a female of the canine race, "should not have his estates ;" and therefore, to avert the consequences which would result from an act of attainder being passed upon him, he had obtained a pistol through the intervention of a friend, and shot himself in his bed.'

A more lingering tragedy was the doom of Philip Howard, earl of Arundel, the eldest son of the beheaded duke of Norfolk. This young nobleman had been educated in the protestant faith, and was married, in his fifteenth year, to one of the co-heiresses of the ancient family of Dacre. Her, he at first neglected, intoxicated, as it appears, by the seductive pleasures of the court, and the flattering attentions which the queen lavished upon him. It had even been whispered among the courtiers, "that if he had not been a married man, he might have aspired to the hand of his sovereign." Meantime, his deserted wife, in the seclusion of the country, became a convert to the doctrines of the church of Rome, probably through the persuasions of her husband's grandfather, Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, as her change of creed took place during his life. On the death of that nobleman, Philip Howard claimed to succeed him in his

1 Horace Walpole. Bayleys' History of the Tower. 2MS. life of Philip, earl of Arundel, in possession of the Duke of Norfolk. Howard Memorials.

honours and estates.

His claims were admitted, and he took his place in the House of Lords, as earl of Arundel and premier peer of England; for there were then no dukes, his father having been the last man who bore that dignity in Elizabeth's reign.

The malignant influences that had destroyed Norfolk, pursued his son. They were, in fact, similar characters, possessing many amiable qualities, but devoid of moral courage and manly decision. The prophetic malediction, which was denounced against Reuben-"unstable as water, thou shalt not excel"-appears peculiarly applicable to both these unfortunate Howards. They were of a temperament too soft and timid for the times; and the very excess of caution which they exercised, to avoid committing themselves, either personally or politically, was the cause of exciting a greater degree of suspicion in the mind of their wary and observant sovereign, than would probably have been the result of a more manly line of conduct.

Norfolk had been the dupe and the victim of men, who had taken advantage of his vacillating disposition, to beguile him into overt acts of treason, and then hunted him to the scaffold. Arundel, with naturally virtuous and refined inclinations, had been led, by the contagious influence of evil companions, into a career of sinful folly, which impaired his fortune, deprived him of the respect of his friends, and excited the contempt of his enemies. The repeated slights that were put upon him, rendered him at length aware of the light in which he was regarded in that false flattering court; and in the mingled bitterness of self-reproach and resentment, he retired to Arundel castle. There he became, for the first time, sensible of the virtues and endearing qualities of his neglected wife, and endeavoured, by every mark of tender attention, to atone for his past faults.

The queen took umbrage at Arundel's withdrawing from court. Notwithstanding the caresses she had lavished upon him, she regarded him with distrust as the son of the beheaded Norfolk. The nature of her feelings towards the family of that unfortunate nobleman, had been betrayed as early as two years after his execution, on the occasion of his sister, the lady Berkeley, kneeling to solicit some favour at her hand. "No, no, my lady Berkeley," exclaimed her majesty, turning hastily away. "We know you

will never love us for your brother's death."1 Yet Elizabeth amused herself with coquetting with the disinherited heir of Norfolk, till his reconciliation with his deserted countess provoked her into unequivocal manifestations of hostility, and confirmed the general remark, that "no married man could hope to retain her favour if he lived on terms of affection with his wife."

The first indications of her displeasure fell on the weaker vessel. Lady Arundel was presented for recusancy, and confined under the royal warrant to the house of sir Thomas Shirley for twelve months."

Arundel was deeply offended at the persecution of his lady, and the deprivation of her society, of which he had learned the value too late. He was himself, in heart, a convert to the same faith which she openly professed; and being much importuned by the friends of the queen of Scots to enter into the various confederacies formed in her favour, he determined to avoid further danger, by quitting England. His secretary, Mumford, had already engaged a passage for him, in a vessel that was to sail from Hull, when he was informed that it was her majesty's intention to honour him with a visit at Arundel house. Elizabeth came, was magnificently entertained, behaved graciously, and carried her dissimulation so far, as to speak in terms of commendation of her host to the French ambassador, Mauvissière de Castelnau, who was present.

3

"She praised the earl of Arundel much for his goodnature," says that statesman; but when she took her leave of him, she thanked him for his hospitality, and in return, bade him," consider himself a prisoner in his own house." His brother, lord William Howard, and Mumford, his secretary, were arrested at the same time. They were subjected to very rigorous examinations, and Mumford was threatened with the rack. Nothing was, however, elicited, that could furnish grounds for proceeding against any of the parties; and after a short imprisonment they were set at liberty. Arundel, after this, attempted once more to leave England, and had actually embarked and set sail from the coast of Sussex. The vessel was chased at sea by two of the queen's ships; he was taken, brought back, and lodged 1 Smythe's Lives of the Berkeleys.

2 Howard Memorials.

9 MS. life of Philip Howard, in possession of the duke of Norfolk.

1

in the Tower. Previous to his departure, he had written a pathetic letter to Elizabeth, complaining of the adverse fortune which had now for several generations pursued his house; his father and grandfather, having perished on a scaffold without just cause; his great grandfather, having also suffered attainder and condemnation to the block, from which he only escaped, as it were, by miracle; and the same evil fortunes appearing to pursue him, he saw no other means of escaping the snares of his powerful enemies, and enjoying liberty of conscience, than leaving the realm.

66 His life," he said, "had been narrowly sought during his late imprisonment; and as her majesty had shewn on how slight grounds she had been led into a suspicious hard opinion of his ancestors, and that the late attack upon himself, having proved how little his innocence availed for his protection, he had decided on withdrawing himself, trusting that she would not visit him with her displeasure, for doing so without her licence, for that he should consider the bitterest of all his misfortunes.'

This letter was to have been presented to the queen, by Arundel's sister, lady Margaret Sackville; but she and lord William Howard were placed under arrest almost simultaneously with himself. The confinement of Arundel was rigorous in the extreme, and embittered with every circumstance of aggravation that persons of narrow minds, but great malignity, could devise. At the time of his arrest, lady Arundel was on the eve of becoming a mother. She brought forth a fair son, and sent to gladden her captive lord with the tidings of her safety, and the accomplishment of his earnest desire for the birth of an heir; but lest he should take comfort at the news, he was allowed to remain in suspense many months, and was then falsely informed that his lady had borne another daughter. Lady Arundel was treated with great cruelty. All her goods were seized in the queen's name, and they left her nothing but the beds on which she and the two servants, that now constituted her sole retinue, lay, and these were only lent as a great favour.

After Elizabeth had despoiled and desolated Arundel house, she came there one day, in the absence of its sorrowing mistress, and espying a sentence written by her with 1 Memorials of the Howard family. MS. life of Philip Howard. 'Howard Memorials. MS. life of Philip Howard.

a diamond on a pane of glass, in one of the windows, expressing a hope of better fortunes, she cruelly answered it, by inscribing under it another sentence, indicative of anger and disdain."

Arundel remained unnoticed in prison for upwards of a twelvemonth, and was then fined ten thousand pounds by a star-chamber sentence, for having attempted to quit the realm without leave. He was also condemned to suffer imprisonment during her majesty's pleasure. Nothing less than a life-long term of misery satisfied the vengeance of Elizabeth.

While these severities were exercised on the devoted representative of the once powerful house of Norfolk, the famous association for the protection of queen Elizabeth against "popish conspirators," was devised by Leicester. All who subscribed it bound themselves to prosecute to the death, or as far as they were able, all who should attempt anything against the queen. Elizabeth, who was naturally much gratified at the enthusiasm with which the majority of her subjects hastened to enrol themselves as her voluntary protectors, imagined that the queen of Scots would be proportionately mortified and depressed at an institution, which proved how little she had to hope from the disaffection of Englishmen to their reigning sovereign. "Her majesty," writes Walsingham to Sadler, "could well like that this association were shewn to the queen, your charge, upon some apt occasion; and that there were good regard had both unto her, her countenance and speech, after the perusing thereof.""

Mary Stuart disappointed the prying malignity of the parties, by whom she was exposed to this inquisitorial test, by her frank and generous approval of the association, and astonished them by offering to subscribe it herself. The new parliament, which had been summoned of necessity, the last having been dissolved after the unprecedented duration of eleven years, converted the bond of this association into a statute, which provided,

1 MS. life of Anne, countess of Arundel, at Norfolk house, quoted, in the Howard Memorials, by the late Henry Howard, Esq., of Corby. Probably the sentence written by the unfortunate countess, was a distich in rhyme, as she was an elegant poet; and it is possible that Elizabeth's response was one of the sharp epigrammatic couplets for which she was celebrated. Sadler's State Papers, vol. ii. p. 430.