Strange that his colleagues and his rivals should have been obliged to advise Leicester upon the proper course to pursue; that they—­not himself—­should have been the first to perceive that it was the enraged woman, even more than the offended sovereign, who was to be propitiated and soothed.  In truth, all the woman had been aroused in Elizabeth’s bosom.  She was displeased that her favourite should derive power and splendour from any source but her own bounty.  She was furious that his wife, whom she hated, was about to share in his honours.  For the mischievous tongues of court-ladies had been collecting or fabricating many unpleasant rumours.  A swarm of idle but piquant stories had been buzzing about the Queen’s ears, and stinging her into a frenzy of jealousy.  The Countess—­it was said—­was on the point of setting forth for the Netherlands, to join the Earl, with a train of courtiers and ladies, coaches and side-saddles, such as were never seen before—­where the two were about to establish themselves in conjugal felicity, as well as almost royal state.  What a prospect for the jealous and imperious sovereign!  “Coaches and side-saddles!  She would show the upstarts that there was one Queen, and that her name was Elizabeth, and that there was no court but hers.”  And so she continued to storm and swear, and threaten unutterable vengeance, till all her courtiers quaked in their shoes.

Thomas Dudley, however, warmly contradicted the report, declaring, of his own knowledge, that the Countess had no wish to go to the Provinces, nor the Earl any intention of receiving her there.  This information was at once conveyed to the Queen, “and,” said Dudley, “it did greatly pacify her stomach.”  His friends did what they could to maintain the governor’s cause; but Burghley, Walsingham, Hatton, and the rest of them, were all “at their wits end,” and were nearly distraught at the delay in Davison’s arrival.  Meantime the Queen’s stomach was not so much pacified but that she was determined to humiliate the Earl with the least possible delay.  Having waited sufficiently long for his explanations, she now appointed Sir Thomas Heneage as special commissioner to the States, without waiting any longer.  Her wrath vented itself at once in the preamble to the instructions for this agent.

“Whereas,” she said, “we have been given to understand that the Earl of Leicester hath in a very contemptuous sort—­contrary to our express commandment given unto him by ourself, accepted of an offer of a more absolute government made by the States unto him, than was agreed on between us and their commissioners—­which kind of contemptible manner of proceeding giveth the world just cause to think that there is not that reverent respect carried towards us by our subjects as in duty appertaineth; especially seeing so notorious a contempt committed by one whom we have raised up and yielded in the eye of the world, even from the beginning of our reign, as great portion of our favour as ever subject