that the queen's meaning was that she intended to marry him,
and thus make him a sort of king. The man told the story boastingly to
one of the servants of Lord Arundel, who was also a suitor of the
queen's. The servants, each taking the part of his master in the
rivalry, quarreled. Lord Arundel's man said that he wished that Dudley
had been hung with his father, or else that somebody would shoot him in
the street with a _dag_. A dag was, in the language of those days, the
name for a pistol.

Time moved on, and though Leicester seemed to become more and more a
favorite, the plan of his being married to Elizabeth, if any such were
entertained by either party, appeared to come no nearer to an
accomplishment. Elizabeth lived in great state and splendor, sometimes
residing in her palaces in or near London, and sometimes making royal
progresses about her dominions. Dudley, together with the other
prominent members of her court, accompanied her on these excursions, and
obviously enjoyed a very high degree of personal favor. She encouraged,
at the same time, her other suitors, so that on all the great public
occasions of state, at the tilts and tournaments, at the plays--which,
by-the-way, in those days were performed in the churches--on all the
royal progresses and grand receptions at cities, castles, and
universities, the lady queen was surrounded always by royal or noble
beaux, who made her presents, and paid her a thousand compliments, and
offered her gallant attentions without number--all prompted by ambition
in the guise of love. They smiled upon the queen with a perpetual
sycophancy, and gnashed their teeth secretly upon each other with a
hatred which, unlike the pretended love, was at least honest and
sincere. Leicester was the gayest, most accomplished, and most favored
of them all, and the rest accordingly combined and agreed in hating him
more than they did each other.

Queen Elizabeth, however, never really admitted that she had any design
of making Leicester, or Dudley, as he is indiscriminately called, her
husband. In fact, at one time she recommended him to Mary Queen of Scots
for a husband. After Mary returned to Scotland, the two queens were, for
a time, on good terms, as professed friends, though they were, in fact,
all the time, most inveterate and implacable foes; but each, knowing how
much injury the other might do her, wished to avoid exciting any
unnecessary hostility. Mary, particularly, as she found s