Assailed in turn by error in doctrine, superstition, hypocrisy, enchantments, lawlessness, pride, and despair, the red-cross knight overcomes them all, and is led at last by the Lady Una into the House of Holiness, a happy and glorious house.  There, anew equipped with the shield of Faith, the helmet of Salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, he goes forth to greater conquests; the dragon is slain, the Lady Una triumphant, the Church delivered, and Holiness to the Lord established as the law of his all-subduing kingdom on earth.

BRITOMARTIS.—­In the third book the further adventures of the red-cross knight are related, but a heroine divides our attention with him. Britomartis, or Chastity, finds him attacked by six lawless knights, who try to compel him to give up his lady and serve another.  Here Britomartis represents Elizabeth, and the historic fact is the conflict of English Protestantism carried on upon land and sea, in the Netherlands, in France, and against the Invincible Armada of Philip.  The new mistress offered him in the place of Una is the Papal Church, and the six knights are the nations fighting for the claims of Rome.

The valiant deeds of Britomartis represent also the power of chastity, to which Scott alludes when he says,

    She charmed at once and tamed the heart,
    Incomparable Britomarte.[28]

And here the poet pays his most acceptable tribute to the Virgin Queen.  She is in love with Sir Artegal—­abstract justice.  She has encountered him in fierce battle, and he has conquered her.  It was the fond boast of Elizabeth that she lived for her people, and for their sake refused to marry.  The following portraiture will be at once recognized: 

    And round about her face her yellow hair
      Having, thro’ stirring, loosed its wonted band,
    Like to a golden border did appear,
      Framed in goldsmith’s forge with cunning hand;
      Yet goldsmith’s cunning could not understand
    To frame such subtle wire, so shiny clear,
      For it did glisten like the glowing sand,
    The which Pactolus with his waters sheer,
    Throws forth upon the rivage, round about him near.

This encomium upon Elizabeth’s hair recalls the description of another courtier, that it was like the last rays of the declining sun.  Ill-natured persons called it red.

SIR ARTEGAL, OR JUSTICE.—­As has been already said, Artegal, or Justice, makes conquest of Britomartis or Elizabeth.  It is no earthly love that follows, but the declaration of the queen that in her continued maidenhood justice to her people shall be her only spouse.  Such, whatever the honest historian may think, was the poet’s conceit of what would best please his royal mistress.

It has been already stated that by Gloriana, the Faerie Queene, the poet intended the person of Elizabeth in her regnant grandeur:  Britomartis represents her chastity.  Not content with these impersonations, Spenser introduces a third:  it is Belphoebe, the abstraction of virginity; a character for which, however, he designs a dual interpretation.  Belphoebe is also another representation of the Church; in describing her he rises to great splendor of language: