he Mastership of the Horse.
Stories of the Queen's supposed infatuation, how she 'kept him at cards,
or one game or another, the whole night, and he cometh not to his own
lodgings till birds sing in the morning,' amused, and did not incense.
Meanwhile the approved soldier, the planter of Virginia, was in the same
May, 1587, truthfully described as 'the best hated man of the world in
Court, city, and country.'

[Sidenote: _His Antipathy to Ralegh._]

For the crowd Essex may have had the merit of being of an ancient
nobility, which needed no intricate demonstration by antiquaries and
genealogists. He had enough patrimonial wealth to justify the Sovereign
in showering largess upon him. He was not one of the irrepressible west
countrymen who brought their nimble wits, comeliness, and courage to the
market of the Court. He was more bright than stately. His petulance did
not produce an impression of haughtiness. For the courtier class he
possessed the yet higher virtue of willingness to be at once a centre
and watchword and an instrument. From the first he was manipulated as an
engine against Ralegh. In a letter to one of his many confidants he
shows the readiness with which he accepted the office. In 1587 Elizabeth
was on a progress, and was staying at North Hall in Hertfordshire.
Ralegh, as Captain of the Guard, and Essex both attended her. Essex
writes to his friend, Edward Dyer, that he reproached the Queen for
having slighted his sister, Lady Dorothy Perrot, the wife of Ralegh's
old antagonist, Sir Thomas. He declared to her 'the true cause of this
disgrace to me and to my sister, which was only to please that knave
Ralegh, for whose sake I saw she would both grieve me and my love, and
disgrace me in the eyes of the world. From thence she came to speak of
Ralegh, and it seemed she could not well endure anything to be spoken
against him; and taking hold of the word "disdain," she said there was
"no such cause why I should disdain him." This speech did touch me so
much that, as near as I could, I did describe unto her what he had been,
and what he was. I did let her know whether I had cause to disdain his
competition of love, or whether I could have comfort to give myself over
to the service of a mistress which was in awe of such a man. I spake,
what of grief and choler, as much against him as I could, and I think
he, standing at the door, might very well hear the very worst that I
spoke of himself. In the end I saw she w