s extremely pleased and elated with
these honors. He was king all but in name. He provided himself with a
noble life-guard, in imitation of royalty, and assumed all the state and
airs of a monarch. Things went on so very prosperously with him for a
short time, until he was one day thunderstruck by the appearance at his
palace of a nobleman from the queen's court, named Heneage, who brought
him a letter from Elizabeth which was in substance as follows:

"How foolishly, and with what contempt of my authority, I
think you have acted, the messenger I now send to you will
explain. I little imagined that a man whom I had raised from
the dust, and treated with so much favor, would have
forgotten all his obligations, and acted in such a manner. I
command you now to put yourself entirely under the direction
of this messenger, to do in all things precisely as he
requires, upon pain of further peril."

Leicester humbled himself immediately under this rebuke, sent home most
ample apologies and prayers for forgiveness, and, after a time,
gradually recovered the favor of the queen. He soon, however, became
very unpopular in the Netherlands. Grievous complaints were made
against him, and he was at length recalled.

Drake was more successful. He was a bold, undaunted, and energetic
seaman, but unprincipled and merciless. He manned and equipped his
fleet, and set sail toward the Spanish possessions in America. He
attacked the colonies, sacked the towns, plundered the inhabitants,
intercepted the ships, and searched them for silver and gold. In a word,
he did exactly what pirates are hung for doing, and execrated afterward
by all mankind. But, as Queen Elizabeth gave him permission to perform
these exploits, he has always been applauded by mankind as a hero. We
would not be understood as denying that there is any difference between
burning and plundering innocent towns and robbing ships, whether there
is or is not a governmental permission to commit these crimes. There
certainly is a difference. It only seems to us surprising that there
should be so great a difference as is made by the general estimation of
mankind.

Drake, in fact, had acquired a great and honorable celebrity for such
deeds before this time, by a similar expedition, several years before,
in which he had been driven to make the circumnavigation of the globe.
England and Spain were then nominally at peace, and the expedition was