queen,--or, as runs the clap-trap phrase, "the golden days of good Queen Bess,"- -we are enabled, even through the inflated eulogies of contemporary writers, to detect the craftiness,-the cruelty, the licentious vanity,- the insane arrogance of the self-assumed Phoenix. The nips and bobs, with which she " sorely pinched" her ladies of honour,-the unchristian pride, with which she exacted knee-worship from all approaching her, the relentless virulence which urged her persecution of the ladies of the house of Grey, for having presumed to give legal heirs to her crown,-the coarse spirit of vituperation, which exposed her most tried and ancient servants to opprobrious insults,—the levity which betrayed her into unseemly familiarity with her favourite, Dudley, even in an audience of state-are, perhaps, sufficient causes for distrusting the feminine qualifications of "the fair vestal throned in the West." But, when we consider the fate of that loveliest monument of human frailty, the sister and rival who had screened herself from rebellion under the protection of a British queen,—when we recall the bloody destinies of Essex, Norfolk, and a numberless brotherhood,-the unsparing use of torture, which, contrary to the law of the realm, disgraced the early annals of her reign, her hollow and insolent dealings with her parliament, the foul indifference marked towards the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and the persecution of the Huguenots by her quickly thereafter becoming sponsor to the child of the French king,-the vindictive spirit, which prompted her to strike off the hand of a gentleman and a scholar, who had ventured to set forth the monstrous disproportion of her marriage with the boy-Duke of Alençon,-the baseness, which sought hospitality from the master of Euston Hall, in order to detect and punish his secret adherence to Papistry, and, finally, the parsimonious abstinence of Elizabeth from all public acts of munificence, and her greedy exactments from the generosity of her courtiers, are facts whose united atrocity may counterbalance a zeal, sometimes doubtful, for the interests of the Reformed Church; a judicious selection of the ministers of her arbitrary will; a brilliant tact in the art of government; an intrepid spirit, and dignified carriage. The revels were now at their height. The queen of the May, having won all hearts to her praise by the trimly featness with which she executed her duty, of leading a galliard and a corranto in the ringa featness which called down the applause of Sir Christopher Hatton himself, was proceeding to re-enthrone herself in the tent, when some idle speech among the crowd, that her majesty was ill-minded to prolong her courtesy and witness the sports to an end, renewed her terrors and impatience. As she stood, perplexed and tormented by the importunate homage of her little court, it chanced that Sir Wilfred Dudley, one of the vain gallants who had long pestered her with his assiduities, approached, to tender her some of those practised flatteries which his tendency to parler Euphuisme rendered more circumlocutory than the critical juncture of her affairs might well endure. "Sweet sovereignty!" said he, "if a simple subject may hope to penetrate the guarded portal of thy distrustful hearing" "Good Sir Wilfred," interrupted Maud, " you have, ofttimes, made vaunt of your will to do me service" "And therein, sweet harte of the greenwood, to pleasure mine own best liking." "I ask not your motive-care not for it now; but if ever you would win my gratitude, guide me through yonder armed bands, to the feet of the queen." "To her majesty's very presence ?-For an eyass, that but now leaveth the mew, damsel, thou soarest high." "You refuse me? Nay, then," said Maud, slipping beneath the ropes, and directing her hurried steps towards the knoll, "I will bear mine errand in single boldness." But the fantastic gallantry of the Euphuist would not permit him to abandon the championship of a maiden in distress; and quickly overtaking her as she reached the opening into an over-arching alley of lime-trees, he held out his hand for her support with all that distortion of affectation which characterized his postures. "Mistress Maud!" said Sir Wilfred, negligently flinging aside his mantle, in order to reveal the richness of his Spanish doublet, “I hasten to propose a league of amity between us, of which the terms are, present protection on my |