a witty and ingenious writer.

"None alive did better ken the secretary's craft, to get counsels out of
others and keep them in himself. Marvellous his sagacity in examining
suspected persons, either to make them confess the truth, or confound
themselves by denying it to their detection. Cunning his hands, who
could unpick the cabinets in the pope's conclave; quick his ears, who
could hear at London what was whispered at Rome; and numerous the spies
and eyes of this Argus dispersed in all places.

"The Jesuits, being outshot in their own bow, complained that he out
equivocated their equivocation, having a mental reservation deeper and
further than theirs. They tax him for making heaven bow too much to
earth, oft-times borrowing a point of conscience with full intent never
to pay it again; whom others excused by reasons of state and dangers of
the times. Indeed his simulation (which all allow lawful) was as like to
dissimulation (condemned by all good men) as two things could be which
were not the same. He thought that gold might, but intelligence could
not, be bought too dear;--the cause that so great a _statesman_ left so
small an _estate_, and so _public_ a person was so _privately_ buried in
St. Pauls[102]."

[Note 102: Fuller's Worthies in Kent.]

The long state of infirmity which preceded the death of Walsingham, had
afforded abundant opportunity for various intrigues and negotiations
respecting the appointment of his successor in office. Burleigh hoped to
make the choice of her majesty fall on his son Robert; Essex was
anxious to decide it in favor of the discarded Davison, who seems to
have been performing some part of the functions of a secretary of state
during the illness of Walsingham, though he did not venture to appear in
the sight of his still-offended mistress. No one was more susceptible of
generous emotions than Essex; and it ought not to be doubted that much
of the extraordinary zeal which he manifested, during two or three
entire years, in the cause of this unfortunate and ill-treated man, is
to be ascribed to genuine friendship: but neither must it be concealed
that this struggle for the nomination of a secretary was in effect the
great and decisive trial of strength between himself and the Cecils.
Several letters have been printed, written by Essex to Davison and
bearing date between the years 1587 and 1590, from which a few extracts
may be worth transcribing, both for the excellence of the style