had given her umbrage, and to report upon the whole
matter.

The sagacious and upright statesman was soon satisfied where the blame
ought to rest, and he suggested a plan for the government of the country
which excluded the idea of Leicester's return. But the intrigues of the
favorite finally prevailed, and he was authorized in June 1587 to resume
a station of which he had proved himself equally incapable and unworthy,
having previously been further gratified by her majesty with the office
of lord high-steward, and with permission to resign that of master of
the horse to his stepson the earl of Essex. But fortune disdained to
smile upon his arms; and his failure in an attempt to raise the siege of
Sluys produced such an exasperation of his former quarrel with the
States, that in the month of November the queen found herself compelled
to supersede him, appointing the brave lord Willoughby captain-general
in his place.

On his return to England, Leicester found lord Buckhurst preparing
against him a charge of malversation in Holland, and he received a
summons to justify himself before the privy-council; but he better
consulted his safety by flying for protection to the footstool of the
throne. The queen, touched by his expressions of humility and sorrow,
and his earnest entreaties "that she would not receive with disgrace on
his return, him whom she had sent forth with honor, nor bring down
alive to the grave one whom her former goodness had raised from the
dust," consented once again to receive him into wonted favor. Nor was
this all; for on the day when he was expected to give in his answer
before the council, he appeared in his place, and by a triumphant appeal
to her majesty, whose secret orders limited, as he asserted, his public
commission, baffled at once the hopes of his enemies and the claims of
public justice. What was still more gross, he was suffered to succeed in
procuring a censure to be passed upon lord Buckhurst, who continued in
disgrace for the nine remaining months of Leicester's life, during which
a royal command restrained him within his house. Elizabeth must in this
instance have known her own injustice even while she was committing it;
but by the loyal and chivalrous nobility, who knelt before the footstool
of the maiden-queen, "her buffets and rewards were ta'en with equal
thanks;" and Abbot, the chaplain of lord Buckhurst, has recorded of his
patron, that "so obsequious was he to this command, t