This difficulty was most artfully removed on the part of Elizabeth. It was urged to Mary by her judges, that she injured her reputation by avoiding a trial, in which her innocence might be proved to the satisfaction of all mankind. This observation so powerfully impressed her, that she forgot the dictates of prudence, and agreed to submit to a tribunal where her condemnation was certain and inevitable. Two of her secretaries, corrupted, as was supposed, for the purpose, swore to certain letters dictated by her, which proved an acquiescence in the whole conspiracy. Mary desired that she might be confronted with her secretaries, who, she affirmed, would not, to her face, persist in a false accusation; but this request was refused: the evidence was held conclusive, and the queen of Scots was condemned to suffer death; a sentence which was executed on the 8th day of February, 1587, in the forty-fifth year of her age, and nineteenth of her captivity in England. Previously to this event, Murray had fallen a victim to the private revenge of one Hamilton of Bothwell-haugh, whom he had injured; Lethington, seized with remorse, took part with his injured sovereign, and poisoned himself in prison, to escape the sentence of his enemies; Morton, for some time regent of the kingdom, and in that capacity the object of universal hatred for his crimes and vices, was finally brought to trial, and suffered death, on a full proof of his concern in the murder of Darnley. Such was the merited reward of their inhuman treasons.

The attention of the English was now called

aside from dwelling on this disastrous event, by the formidable preparations made by Philip II. of Spain for an invasion of the kingdom. The unsuccessful issue of all these preparations we have already recorded in treating of the reign of that monarch. Of the whole of the invincible Armada there returned to Spain only fifty-three shattered ships; and the seamen as well as soldiers who remained, only served by their accounts to intimidate their countrymen from attempting to renew so dangerous an enterprise. The English, on the other hand, were incited to make some descents, in their turn, upon the Spanish coasts; and Elizabeth's navy, under the command of those great admirals Raleigh, Howard, Drake, Cavendish, and Hawkins, began to establish that superiority at sea which Britain ever since has almost uninterruptedly maintained.

Among those who chiefly distinguished themselves in these Spanish expeditions, was the young earl of Essex, a nobleman of great courage, fond of glory, and of a most enterprising disposition. He possessed no less the talents of a warrior than of a finished courtier; yet his impetuosity was apt to exceed the bounds of prudence. He was haughty, and utterly impatient of advice or control. Elizabeth, then almost sixty years of age, was smit with the personal charms of this accomplished youth; for it was peculiar to the queen, that though she had always rejected a husband, she was passionately fond of having a lover. The flattery of her courtiers had persuaded her that, though wrinkled and even deformed, she was yet

*

young and beautiful; and she was not sensible of any disparity in choosing Essex for her partner in all the masks at court. Dudley, earl of Leicester, had died some time before. The death of Lord Burleigh, which happened soon after Essex came into favour, left him without a rival, not only in the queen's affections, but in the direction of her councils. The brilliant station which he now occupied, and still more the haughtiness of his temper, procured him many enemies; while the openness and unreservedness of his disposition gave these enemies every advantage. A rebellion had been for many years fermenting in Ireland, and the earl of Tyrone, who headed the malcontents, had committed infinite devastations in that country, and threatened with his party to shake

* A curious proof how desirous Elizabeth was of the praise of beauty exists in a proclamation issued by her in 1563, in the thirty-third year of her age, and fifth of her reign, which sets forth, that, from the great desire which all ranks of people have shown to have portraits of her Majesty, there have been a great number of pictures made "which do not sufficiently express the natural representation of her Majesty's person, favour, or grace, but for the most part have erred therein;-And for that her Majesty perceiveth that a great number of her loving subjects are much grieved, and take great offence with the errors and deformities already committed by sundry persons in this behalf;-Therefore she straitly charges all manner of persons to forbear from painting, graving, printing, or making any portrait of her Majesty, or from showing or publishing such as are apparently deformed, until some perfect pattern or example shall be made by some coning person, which shall be approved by her," &c. &c. This proclamation is published in the "Archaiologia of the London Society of Antiquaries," vol. ii. p. 169, from the original draught in the handwriting of Secretary Cecil.

off all dependence on the crown of England. Essex was deputed to quell these disorders; he was, however, unsuccessful, and procured nothing further than a cessation of hostilities. His enemies at court took occasion from this miscarriage to undermine him in the favour of the queen- -a purpose to which he himself contributed by hastily throwing up his command, and returning without leave to England. He trusted, it is probable, to the empire he had obtained over the queen's affections, which was, indeed, so great that in spite of the highest dissatisfaction at his conduct, he was soon as much in her good graces as ever. But this impetuous and incautious man lost himself at length irretrievably by some personal reflections which he unguardedly threw out against his royal mistress. It was told her that

his affection was all grimace, and that he had frequently declared that he thought the queen as deformed in her mind as she was crooked in her body. She now considered Essex as entirely unworthy of her esteem, and permitted his enemies to drive him to those extremities to which the impetuosity of his own disposition continually prompted him. Among other wild projects, he had concerted with some of his friends to beset the palace, to take possession of the queen's person, and forcibly compel her to remove all from her councils that were disagreeable or obnoxious to him; a scheme which one can hardly suppose to have proceeded from a brain that was not distempered. It was the fortune of Elizabeth's government, that all the machinations of her enemies were frustrated by a timely discovery. The queen's favour would,

perhaps, have been still extended to him, but for another attempt equally treasonable, and yet more extravagant in its nature. This was to raise the

city of London; and at the head of the citizens, with whom he believed himself extremely popular, to obtain an absolute authority in the kingdom, and the removal of all his enemies. But he was deceived in the notion of his own popularity-he was opposed by the citizens—and being attacked in the streets, was compelled to retreat for shelter into his own house. His case was now desperate : he maintained a siege in his house against the queen's troops, and was at length compelled to surrender himself at discretion. He was tried by his peers, found guilty, and condemned to death as a traitor. The queen, with real reluctance, signed the warrant for his execution; and he was privately beheaded in the Tower, in the thirtyfifth year of his age.

From the death of Essex, the queen, now in the seventieth year of her age, seemed to lose all enjoyment of life. She fell into profound melancholy; she reflected then with remorse on some past actions of her reign, and was at times under the most violent emotions of anguish and despair. Her constitution, enfeebled by age, very soon fell a victim to her mental disquietude; and, perceiving her end approaching, she declared that the succession to the crown of England should devolve to her immediate heir, James VI. of Scotland. She died on the 24th of March, 1603, after a reign of forty-five years. There are few personages in history who have been more exposed to the calumny of enemies and the adulation of friends than queen