cause for violence.  “I would have had more regard of my Lord of Buckhurst,” he said, “if the case had been between him and Norris, but I must regard my own reputation the more that I see others would impair it.  You have deserved little thanks of me, if I must deal plainly, who do equal me after this sort with him, whose best place is colonel under me, and once my servant, and preferred by me to all honourable place he had.”  And thus were enterprises of great moment, intimately affecting the, safety of Holland, of England, of all Protestantism, to be suspended between triumph and ruin, in order that the spleen of one individual—­one Queen’s favourite—­might be indulged.  The contempt of an insolent grandee for a distinguished commander—­himself the son, of a Baron, with a mother the dear friend of her sovereign—­was to endanger the existence of great commonwealths.  Can the influence of the individual, for good or bad, upon the destinies of the race be doubted, when the characters and conduct of Elizabeth and Leicester, Burghley and Walsingham, Philip and Parma, are closely scrutinized and broadly traced throughout the wide range of their effects?

“And I must now, in your Lordship’s sight,” continued Leicester, “be made a counsellor with this companion, who never yet to this day hath done so much as take knowledge of my mislike of him; no, not to say this much, which I think would well become his better, that he was sorry, to hear I had mislike to him, that he desired my suspension till he might either speak with me, or be charged from me, and if then he were not able to satisfy me, he would acknowledge his fault, and make me any honest satisfaction.  This manner of dealing would have been no disparagement to his better.  And even so I must think that your Lordship doth me wrong, knowing what you do, to make so little difference between John Norris, my man not long since, and now but my colonel under me, as though we were equals.  And I cannot but more than marvel at this your proceeding, when I remember your promises of friendship, and your opinions resolutely set down . . . .  You were so determined before you went hence, but must have become wonderfully enamoured of those men’s unknown virtues in a few days of acquaintance, from the alteration that is grown by their own commendations of themselves.  You know very well that all the world should not make me serve with John Norris.  Your sudden change from mislike to liking has, by consequence, presently cast disgrace upon me.  But all is not gold that glitters, nor every shadow a perfect representation . . . .  You knew he should not serve with me, but either you thought me a very inconstant man, or else a very simple soul, resolving with you as I did, for you to take the course you have done.”  He felt, however, quite strong in her Majesty’s favour.  He knew himself her favourite, beyond all chance or change, and was sure, so long as either lived, to thrust his enemies, by her aid, into outer