She expressed unbounded indignation with Hohenlo, who, as she was well aware, continued to cherish a deadly hatred for Leicester.  Especially she was exasperated, and with reason, by the assertion the Count had made concerning the governor’s murderous designs upon him. “’Tis a matter,” said the Queen, “so foul and dishonourable that doth not only touch greatly the credit of the Earl, but also our own honour, to have one who hath been nourished and brought up by us, and of whom we have made show to the world to have extraordinarily favoured above any other of our own subjects, and used his service in those countries in a place of that reputation he held there, stand charged with so horrible and unworthy a crime.  And therefore our pleasure is, even as you tender the continuance of our favour towards you, that you seek, by all the means you may, examining the Count Hollock, or any other party in this matter, to discover and to sift out how this malicious imputation hath been wrought; for we have reason to think that it hath grown out of some cunning device to stay the Earl’s coming, and to discourage him from the continuance of his service in those countries.”

And there the Queen was undoubtedly in the right.  Hohenlo was resolved, if possible, to make the Earl’s government of the Netherlands impossible.  There was nothing in the story however; and all that by the most diligent “sifting” could ever be discovered, and all that the Count could be prevailed upon to confess, was an opinion expressed by him that if he had gone with Leicester to England, it might perhaps have fared ill with him.  But men were given to loose talk in those countries.  There was great freedom of tongue and pen; and as the Earl, whether with justice or not, had always been suspected of strong tendencies to assassination, it was not very wonderful that so reckless an individual as Hohenlo should promulgate opinions on such subjects, without much reserve.  “The number of crimes that have been imputed to me,” said Leicester, “would be incomplete, had this calumny not been added to all preceding ones.”  It is possible that assassination, especially poisoning, may have been a more common-place affair in those days than our own.  At any rate, it is certain that accusations of such crimes were of ordinary occurrence.  Men were apt to die suddenly if they had mortal enemies, and people would gossip.  At the very same moment, Leicester was deliberately accused not only of murderous intentions towards Hohenlo, but towards Thomas Wilkes and Count Lewis William of Nassau likewise.  A trumpeter, arrested in Friesland, had just confessed that he had been employed by the Spanish governor of that Province, Colonel Verdugo, to murder Count Lewis, and that four other persons had been entrusted with the same commission.  The Count wrote to Verdugo, and received in reply an indignant denial of the charge.  “Had I heard of such a project,” said the Spaniard, “I would, on the contrary,