ing her, and forbear to treat her with the insolent contempt which
he had lately assumed; above all, not to touch her sceptre; lest she
should be compelled to punish him by the laws of England, and not
according to her own laws; which he had found too mild and favorable to
give him any cause of fear: but that her advice, however salutary and
affectionate, had proved ineffectual to prevent his ruin.

A letter from sir John Harrington to his lady, dated December 27th,
1602, gives the following melancholy picture of the state of his
sovereign and benefactress.

* * * * *

"Sweet Mall;

"I herewith send thee what I would God none did know, some ill-bodings
of the realm and its welfare. Our dear queen, my royal godmother and
this state's natural mother, doth now bear some show of human infirmity;
too fast, for that evil which we shall get by her death, and too slow,
for that good which she shall get by her releasement from pains and
misery. Dear Mall, how shall I speak what I have seen or what I have
felt? thy good silence in these matters emboldens my pen. For thanks to
the sweet God of silence, thy lips do not wanton out of discretion's
path like the many gossiping dames we could name, who lose their
husbands' fast hold in good friends rather than hold fast their own
tongues. Now I will trust thee with great assurance; and whilst thou
dost brood over thy young ones in the chamber, thou shalt read the
doings of thy grieving mate in the court. I find some less mindful of
what they are soon to lose, than of what they may perchance hereafter
get: Now, on my own part, I cannot blot from my memory's table the
goodness of our sovereign lady to me, even, I will say, before born. Her
affection to my mother, who waited in privy-chamber, her bettering the
state of my father's fortune (which I have, alas, so much worsted), her
watchings over my youth, her liking to my free speech and admiration of
my little learning and poesy, which I did so much cultivate on her
command, have rooted such love, such dutiful remembrance of her princely
virtues, that to turn askant from her condition with tearless eyes,
would stain and foul the spring and fount of gratitude. It was not many
days since I was bidden to her presence; I blessed the happy moment, and
found her in most pitiable state; she bade the archbishop ask me if I
had seen Tyrone? I replied with reverence, that I had seen him with the
lord deputy; she