ercised by some ecclesiastic who was also a civilian,
and instances were not rare of the seals having been held in commission
by noblemen during considerable intervals;--facts which, in justice to
Hatton and to Elizabeth, ought on this occasion to be kept in mind.

The pride of Leicester had been deeply wounded by the circumstances of
that forced return from Holland which, notwithstanding all his artful
endeavours to color it to the world, was perfectly understood at court
as a disgraceful recall.

The queen, in the first emotions of indignation and disappointment
called forth by his ill-success, had in public made use of expressions
respecting his conduct, of which he well knew that the effect could
only be obviated by some mark of favor equally public; and he spared no
labor for the accomplishment of this object. By an extraordinary
exertion of that influence over her majesty's affections which enabled
him to hold her judgement in lasting captivity, he was at length
successful, and the honorable and lucrative place of chief justice in
Eyre of all the forests south of Trent was bestowed upon him early in
1587. So far was well; but he disdained to rest satisfied with less than
the restitution of that supreme command over the Dutch provinces which
had flattered his vanity with a title never borne by Englishman before;
that of _Excellence_. His usual arts prevailed in this instance
likewise. By means of the authority which he had surreptitiously
reserved to himself, he held the governors of towns and forts in Holland
in complete dependence, whilst his solemn ostentation of religion had
secured the zealous attachment of the protestant clergy; an order which
then exerted an important influence over public opinion. It had thus
been in his power to raise a strong faction in the country, through the
instrumentality of which he raised such impediments to the measures of
administration, that the States-general saw themselves at length
compelled, as the smaller of two evils, to solicit the queen for his
return. It was a considerable time before she could be brought to
sanction a step of which her sagest counsellors, secretly hostile to
Leicester, labored to demonstrate the entire inexpediency. The affairs
of Holland suffered at once by the dissensions which the malice of
Leicester had sown, and by the long irresolution of Elizabeth; and she
at length sent over lord Buckhurst to make inquiry into some measures of
the States which