Nevertheless, the calumny has endured for three centuries, and is likely to survive as many more.
Whatever crimes Dudley may have committed in the course of his career, there is no doubt whatever that he was the most abused man in Europe.

He had been deeply wounded by the Jesuit's artful publication, in which all the misdeeds with which he was falsely or justly charged were drawn up in awful array, in a form half colloquial, half judicial.

"You had better give some contentment to my Lord Leicester," wrote the French envoy from London to his government, "on account of the bitter feelings excited in him by these villainous books lately written against him." The Earl himself ascribed these calumnies to the Jesuits, to the Guise faction, and particularly to--the Queen of Scots.

He was said, in consequence, to have vowed an eternal hatred to that most unfortunate and most intriguing Princess.

"Leicester has lately told a friend," wrote Charles Paget, "that he will persecute you to the uttermost, for that he supposeth your Majesty to be privy to the setting forth of the book against him." Nevertheless, calumniated or innocent he was at least triumphant over calumny.