s sister to the countess of Nottingham who is believed to have
acted so opposite a part.

About the middle of October strong hopes were entertained of the earls
enlargement; but it was said that "he stood to have his liberty by the
like warrant he was committed." The secretary was pleased to express to
him the satisfaction that he felt in seeing her majesty so well appeased
by his demeanor, and his own wish to promote his good and contentment.
The reasons which he had assigned for his conduct in Ireland appeared to
have satisfied the privy-council and mollified the queen. But her
majesty characteristically declared, that she would not bear the blame
of his imprisonment; and before she and her council could settle amongst
them on whom it should be made to rest, a new cause of exasperation
arose. Tyrone, in a letter to Essex which was intercepted, declared that
he found it impossible to prevail on his confederates to observe the
conditions of truce agreed upon between them; and the queen, relapsing
into anger, triumphantly asked if there did not now appear good cause
for the earl's committal? She immediately made known to lord Montjoy her
wish that he should undertake the government of Ireland; but the
friendship of this nobleman to Essex, joined with a hope that the queen
might be induced to liberate him by a necessity of again employing his
talents in that country, induced Montjoy to excuse himself. The council
unanimously recommended to her majesty the enlargement of the prisoner;
but she angrily replied, that such contempts as he had been guilty of
ought to be openly punished. They answered, that by her sovereign power
and the rigor of law, such punishment might indeed be inflicted, but
that it would be inconsistent with her clemency and her honor; she
however caused heads of accusation to be drawn up against him. All this
time Essex continued very sick; and his high spirit condescended to
supplications like the following.

* * * * *

"When the creature entereth into account with the Creator, it can never
number in how many things it needs mercy, or in how many it receives it.
But he that is best stored, must still say _da nobis hodie_; and he that
hath showed most thankfulness, must ask again, _Quid retribuamus_? And
I can no sooner finish this my first audit, most dear and most admired
sovereign, but I come to consider how large a measure of his grace, and
how great a resemblance of