and told the gentleman usher
that he was a knave, and that he would have him turned out of office.
Leicester was accustomed to feel so much confidence in his power over
Elizabeth, that his manner toward all beneath him had become exceedingly
haughty and overbearing. He supposed, probably, that the officer would
humble himself at once before his rebukes.

The officer, however, instead of this, stepped directly in before
Leicester, who was then going in himself to the presence of the queen;
kneeled before her majesty, related the facts of the case, and humbly
asked what it was her pleasure that he should do. He had obeyed her
majesty's orders, he said, and had been called imperiously to account
for it, and threatened violently by Leicester, and he wished now to know
whether Leicester was king or her majesty queen. Elizabeth was very much
displeased with the conduct of her favorite. She turned to him, and,
beginning with a sort of oath which she was accustomed to use when
irritated and angry, she addressed him in invectives and reproaches the
most severe. She gave him, in a word, what would be called a scolding,
were it not that scolding is a term not sufficiently dignified for
history, even for such humble history as this. She told him that she had
indeed shown him favor, but her favor was not so fixed and settled upon
him that nobody else was to have any share, and that if he imagined that
he could lord it over her household, she would contrive a way very soon
to convince him of his mistake. There was one mistress to rule there,
she said, but no _master_. She then dismissed Bowyer, telling Leicester
that, if any evil happened to him, she should hold him, that is,
Leicester, to a strict account for it, as she should be convinced it
would have come through his means.

Leicester was exceedingly chagrined at this result of the difficulty. Of
course he dared not defend himself or reply. All the other courtiers
enjoyed his confusion very highly, and one of them, in giving an account
of the affair, said, in conclusion, that "the queen's words so quelled
him, that, for some time after, his feigned humility was one of his best
virtues."

Queen Elizabeth very evidently possessed that peculiar combination of
quickness of intellect and readiness of tongue which enables those who
possess it to say very sharp and biting things, when vexed or out of
humor. It is a brilliant talent, though it always makes those who
possess it hated a