lcomed with all the demonstrations of satisfaction which could
revive or confirm the hopes of a suitor; every mark of honor, every
pledge of affection, was publicly conferred upon him; and the queen, at
the conclusion of a splendid festival on the anniversary of her
coronation, even went so far as to place on his finger a ring drawn from
her own. This passed in sight of the whole assembled court, who
naturally regarded the action as a kind of betrothment; and the long
suspense being apparently ended, the feelings of every party broke forth
without restraint or disguise.

Some rejoiced; more grieved or wondered; Leicester, Hatton and
Walsingham loudly exclaimed that ruin impended over the church, the
country, and the queen. The ladies of the court alarmed and agitated
their mistress by tears, cries, and lamentations. A sleepless and
miserable night was passed by the queen amid her disconsolate handmaids:
the next morning she sent for Anjou, and held with him a long private
conversation; after which he retired to his chamber, and hastily
throwing from him, but as quickly resuming, the ring which she had given
him, uttered many reproaches against the levity of women and the
fickleness of islanders.

Such is the account given by the annalist Camden; our only authority for
circumstances some of them so public in their nature that it is
surprising they should not be recorded by others, the rest so secret
that we are at a loss to conceive how they should have become known to
him. What is certain in the matter is,--that the French prince remained
in England above two months after this festival;--that no diminution of
the queen's attentions to him became apparent during that time;--that
when his affairs imperiously demanded his return to the Netherlands,
Elizabeth still detained him that she might herself conduct him on his
way as far as Canterbury;--that she then dismissed him with a large
supply of money and a splendid retinue of English lords and gentlemen,
and that he promised a quick return.

Let us hear on the subject lord Talbot's report to his father.

..."Monsieur hath taken shipping into Flanders...there is gone over
with him my lord of Leicester, my lord Hunsdon, my lord Charles Howard,
my lord Thomas Howard, my lord Windsor, my lord Sheffield, my lord
Willoughby, and a number of young gentlemen besides. As soon as he is at
Antwerp all the Englishmen return, which is thought will be about a
fortnight hence.... The