Of this, our cold beginning doth already make me jealous." Sagacious and resolute Princess as she was, she showed something of feminine caprice upon this grave occasion.

Not Davison alone, but her most confidential ministers and favourites at home, were perplexed and provoked by her misplaced political coquetries.

But while the alternation of her hot and cold fits drove her most devoted courtiers out of patience, there was one symptom that remained invariable throughout all her paroxysms, the rigidity with which her hand was locked.

Walsingham, stealthy enough when an advantage was to be gained by subtlety, was manful and determined in his dealings with his friends; and he had more than once been offended with Elizabeth's want of frankness in these transactions.
"I find you grieved, and not without cause," he wrote to Davison, "in respect to the over thwart proceedings as well there as here.

The disorders in those countries would be easily redressed if we could take a thoroughly resolute course here--a matter that men may rather pray for than hope for.