t news-gatherer acquaints his father, that the
earl of Leicester was much with her majesty, that he was more than
formerly solicitous to please her, and that he was as high in favor as
ever: but that two sisters, lady Sheffield and lady Frances Howard, were
deeply in love with him and at great variance with each other; that the
queen was on this account very angry with them, and not well pleased
with him, and that spies were set upon him. To such open demonstrations
of feminine jealousy did this great queen condescend to have recourse!
Yet she remained all her life in ignorance of the true state of this
affair, which, in fact, is not perfectly cleared up at the present day.

It appears that a criminal intimacy was known to subsist between
Leicester and lady Sheffield even before the death of her lord, in
consequence of which, this event, which was sudden, and preceded it is
said by violent symptoms, was popularly attributed to the Italian arts
of Leicester. During this year, lady Sheffield bore him a son, whose
birth was carefully concealed for fear of giving offence to the queen,
though many believed that a private marriage had taken place. Afterwards
he forsook the mother of his child to marry the countess of Essex, and
the deserted lady became the wife of another. In the reign of James I.,
many years after the death of Leicester, sir Robert Dudley his son, to
whom he had left a great part of his fortune, laid claim to the family
honors, bringing several witnesses to prove his mother's marriage, and
among others his mother herself. This lady declared on oath that
Leicester, in order to compel her to form that subsequent marriage in
his lifetime which must deprive her of the power of claiming him as her
husband, had employed the most violent menaces, and had even attempted
her life by a poisonous potion which had thrown her into an illness by
which she lost her hair and nails. After the production of all this
evidence, the heirs of Leicester exerted all their interest to stop
proceedings;--no great argument of the goodness of their cause;--and sir
Robert Dudley died without having been able to bring the matter to a
legal decision. In the next reign the evidence formerly given was
reviewed, and the title of duchess Dudley conferred on the widow of sir
Robert, the patent setting forth that the marriage of the earl of
Leicester with lady Sheffield had been satisfactorily proved.

So close were the contrivances, so deep, a