s regarded
with a good deal of favor by the queen. He was introduced at court when
he was but seventeen years old, and, being the step-son of Leicester, he
necessarily occupied a conspicuous position; his personal qualities,
joined with this, soon gave him a very high and honorable name.

About a month after the victory obtained by the English over the
invincible armada, Leicester was seized with a fever on a journey, and,
after lingering for a few days, died, leaving Essex, as it were, in his
place. Elizabeth seems not to have been very inconsolable for her
favorite's death. She directed, or allowed, his property to be sold at
auction, to pay some debts which he owed her--or, as the historians of
the day express it, which he owed _the crown_--and then seemed at once
to transfer her fondness and affection to the young Essex, who was at
that time twenty-one years of age. Elizabeth herself was now nearly
sixty. Cecil was growing old also, and was somewhat infirm, though he
had a son who was rapidly coming forward in rank and influence at court.
This son's name was Robert. The young Earl of Essex's name was Robert
too. The elder Cecil and Leicester had been, all their lives, watchful
and jealous of each other, and in some sense rivals. Robert Cecil and
Robert Devereux--for that was, in full, the Earl of Essex's family
name--being young and ardent, inherited the animosity of their parents,
and were less cautious and wary in expressing it. They soon became open
foes.

Robert Devereux, or Essex, as he is commonly called in history, was
handsome and accomplished, ardent, impulsive, and generous. The war with
Spain, notwithstanding the destruction of the armada, continued, and
Essex entered into it with all zeal. The queen, who with all her
ambition, and her proud and domineering spirit, felt, like any other
woman, the necessity of having something to love, soon began to take a
strong interest in his person and fortunes, and seemed to love him as a
mother loves a son; and he, in his turn, soon learned to act toward her
as a son, full of youthful courage and ardor, often acts toward a mother
over whose heart he feels that he has a strong control. He would go
away, without leave, to mix in affrays with the Spanish ships in the
English Channel and in the Bay of Biscay, and then come back and make
his peace with the queen by very humble petitions for pardon, and
promises of future obedience. When he went, with her leave, on these