racter, began to meditate new counsels.

An eye-witness has thus impressively described the struggles of his mind
at this juncture. "It resteth with me in opinion, that ambition thwarted
in its career doth speedily lead on to madness: herein I am strengthened
by what I learn in my lord of Essex, who shifteth from sorrow and
repentance to rage and rebellion so suddenly as well proveth him devoid
of good reason or right mind; in my last discourse he littered such
strange words, bordering on such strange designs, that made me hasten
forth, and leave his presence. Thank heaven I am safe at home, and if I
go in such troubles again, I deserve the gallows for a meddling fool.
His speeches of the queen becometh no man who hath _mens sana in corpore
sano_. He hath ill advisers, and much evil hath sprung from this source.

"The queen well knoweth how to humble the haughty spirit, the haughty
spirit knoweth not how to yield, and the man's soul seemeth tossed to
and fro like the waves of a troubled sea[138]."

[Note 138: Sir John Harrington in Nugae.]

The affinity of Essex to the crown by his descent from Thomas of
Woodstock has been already adverted to;--it seems never to have awakened
the slightest jealousy in the mind of Elizabeth; but the absurd vaunts
of some of his followers, commented upon by the malicious ingenuity of
his enemies, had sufficed to excite sinister suspicions in the bosom of
the king of Scots. For the purpose of counteracting these, lord Montjoy,
near the beginning of the earl's captivity, had sent Henry Leigh into
Scotland, to give the king assurance that Essex entertained none of the
ambitious views which had been imputed to him, but was, on the contrary,
firmly resolved to endure no succession but that of his majesty; further
hinting at some steps for causing his right to be recognised in the
lifetime of the queen. From this time a friendly correspondence had been
maintained between James and the Essex party; and Montjoy, on being
appointed lord deputy of Ireland, had gone so far as to offer to the
king to bring over to England such part of his army as, acting in
concert with the force that the earl would be able to raise, might
compass by force the object which they had in view. By some delay in the
return of the messenger, added to the dilatoriness or reluctance of
James, this plan was frustrated; but some time after Essex, impatient
alike of the disgrace and the inactivity of his present restraint, ur