o surrounded her as
belonging to a single epoch. To them she has one set of suitors all the
time--the Duc d'Alencon, the King of Denmark's brother, the Prince of
Sweden, the russian potentate, the archduke sending her sweet messages
from Austria, the melancholy King of Spain, together with a number of
her own brilliant Englishmen--Sir William Pickering, Sir Robert Dudley,
Lord Darnley, the Earl of Essex, Sir Philip Sidney, and Sir Walter
Raleigh.

Of course, as a matter of fact, Elizabeth lived for nearly seventy
years--almost three-quarters of a century--and in that long time there
came and went both men and women, those whom she had used and cast
aside, with others whom she had also treated with gratitude, and who
had died gladly serving her. But through it all there was a continual
change in her environment, though not in her. The young soldier went to
the battle-field and died; the wise counselor gave her his advice, and
she either took it or cared nothing for it. She herself was a curious
blending of forwardness and folly, of wisdom and wantonness, of
frivolity and unbridled fancy. But through it all she loved her people,
even though she often cheated them and made them pay her taxes in the
harsh old way that prevailed before there was any right save the king's
will.

At the same time, this was only by fits and starts, and on the whole
she served them well. Therefore, to most of them she was always the
good Queen Bess. What mattered it to the ditcher and yeoman, far from
the court, that the queen was said to dance in her nightdress and to
swear like a trooper?

It was, indeed, largely from these rustic sources that such stories
were scattered throughout England. Peasants thought them picturesque.
More to the point with them were peace and prosperity throughout the
country, the fact that law was administered with honesty and justice,
and that England was safe from her deadly enemies--the swarthy
Spaniards and the scheming French.

But, as I said, we must remember always that the Elizabeth of one
period was not the Elizabeth of another, and that the England of one
period was not the England of another. As one thinks of it, there is
something wonderful in the almost star-like way in which this girl
flitted unharmed through a thousand perils. Her own countrymen were at
first divided against her; a score of greedy, avaricious suitors sought
her destruction, or at least her hand to lead her to destruction; all
the