rations of amity which cost her nothing the compliments
of James; and she remained deliberately ignorant of all that he desired
her not to know. The Scottish emissaries had the further satisfaction of
carrying back to their master assurances of the general consent of
Englishmen in his favor, and in particular a pledge of the adherence of
secretary Cecil, who immediately opened a private correspondence with
the king, of which lord Henry Howard, who had formerly conducted that of
Essex, became the willing medium.

There is good evidence that the peace of Elizabeth received an incurable
wound by the loss of her unhappy favorite, which she daily found
additional cause to regret on perceiving how completely it had delivered
her over to the domination of his adversaries; but she still retained
the resolution to pursue with unabated vigor the great objects on which
she was sensible that the mind of a sovereign ought to be with little
remission employed. The memorable siege of Ostend, begun during this
summer by the archduke Albert, fixed her attention and that of Europe.
The defence was conducted by that able officer sir Francis Vere at the
head of a body of English auxiliaries, whom the States had enlisted with
the queen's permission, at their own expense. Henry IV., as if for the
purpose of observing more nearly the event, had repaired to Calais. The
queen of England, earnestly desirous of a personal interview, wrote him
two letters on the subject; and Henry sent in return marshal Biron and
two other ambassadors of rank, with a train of three or four hundred
persons, whom the queen received with high honors, and caused to
accompany her in her progress. During her visit of thirteen days to the
marquis of Winchester at Basing, the French embassy was lodged at the
house of lord Sandys, which was furnished for the occasion with plate
and hangings from Hampton-court; the queen defraying all the charges,
which were more than those of her own court at Basing. She made it her
boast that she had in this progress entertained royally a royal
ambassador at her subjects' houses; which she said no other prince could
do. The meeting of the two sovereigns, in hopes of which Elizabeth had
actually gone to Dover, could not for some unknown reason be at last
arranged; but Henry, at the particular instance of his friend and ally,
sent Sully over in disguise to confer confidentially with her respecting
an important political project which she had