charge was repeated to those
of his followers whom he left behind him. What guarded her even more
effectually was the love of the people. When Philip at a later time
claimed Elizabeth's gratitude for his protection she told him bluntly
that her gratitude was really due neither to him nor her nobles, though
she owned her obligations to both, but to the English people. It was
they who had saved her from death and hindered all projects for barring
her right to the throne. "It is the people," she said, "who have placed
me where I am now." It was indeed their faith in Elizabeth's speedy
succession that enabled Englishmen to bear the bloodshed and shame of
Mary's later years, and to wait patiently for the end.

Nor were these years of waiting without value for Elizabeth herself. The
steady purpose, the clear perception of a just policy which ran through
her wonderful reign, were formed as the girl looked coolly on at the
chaos of bigotry and misrule which spread before her. More and more she
realized what was to be the aim of her after life, the aim of reuniting
the England which Edward and Mary alike had rent into two warring
nations, of restoring again that English independence which Mary was
trailing at the feet of Spain. With such an aim she could draw to her
the men who, indifferent like herself to purely spiritual
considerations, and estranged from Mary's system rather by its political
than its religious consequences, were anxious for the restoration of
English independence and English order. It was among these "Politicals,"
as they were soon to be called, that Elizabeth found at this moment a
counsellor who was to stand by her side through the long years of her
after reign. William Cecil sprang from the smaller gentry whom the
changes of the time were bringing to the front. He was the son of a
Yeoman of the Wardrobe at Henry's court; but his abilities had already
raised him at the age of twenty-seven to the post of secretary to the
Duke of Somerset, and through Somerset's Protectorate he remained high
in his confidence. He was seized by the Lords on the Duke's arrest, and
even sent to the Tower; but he was set at liberty with his master, and
his ability was now so well known that a few months later saw him
Secretary of State under Northumberland. The post and the knighthood
which accompanied it hardly compensated for the yoke which
Northumberland's pride laid upon all who served him, or for the risks in
which his ambi