him to answer, he said his opinion was, she did it by
virtue of some precious stone in possession of the crown of England that
had such a natural quality. But had queen Elizabeth been told that he
ascribed more virtue to her jewels (though she loved them well) than to
her person, she would never have made him bishop of Chester."

Of the justice of the last remark there can be little question. In this
reign, the royal pretension referred to, was asserted with unusual
earnestness, and for good reasons, as we learn from a different
authority. In 1597 a quarto book appeared, written in Latin and
dedicated to her majesty by one of her chaplains, which contained a
relation of the cures thus performed by her; in which it is related,
that a catholic having been so healed went away persuaded that the
pope's excommunication of her majesty was of no effect: "For if she had
not by right obtained the sceptre of the kingdom, and her throne
established by the authority and appointment of God, what she attempted
could not have succeeded. Because the rule is, that God is not any where
witness to a lie[120]." Such were the reasonings of that age.

[Note 120: Strype's Annals.]

It is probably to bishop Vaughan also that sir John Harrington refers in
the following article of his Brief Notes.

"One Sunday (April last) my lord of London preached to the queen's
majesty, and seemed to touch on the vanity of decking the body too
finely. Her majesty told the ladies, that if the bishop held more
discourse on such matters, she would fit him for heaven, but he should
walk thither without a staff, and leave his mantle behind him. Perchance
the bishop hath never sought her highness' wardrobe, or he would have
chosen another text[121]."

[Note 121: Nugae Antiquae.]

CHAPTER XXVI.

1597 AND 1598.

Fresh expedition against Spain proposed.--Extracts from Whyte's
letters.--Raleigh reconciles Essex and R. Cecil.--Essex master of the
ordnance.--Anecdote of the queen and Mrs. Bridges.--Preparations for the
expedition.--Notice of lord Southampton.--Ill success of the
voyage.--Quarrel of Essex and Raleigh.--Displeasure of the queen.--Lord
admiral made earl of Nottingham.--Anger of Essex.--He is declared
hereditary earl marshal.--Reply of the queen to a Polish ambassador.--to
a proposition of the king of Denmark.--State of Ireland.--Treaty of
Vervins.--Agreement between Cecil and Essex.--Anecdotes of Essex and the
queen.--Their quarrel.--Letter