Her Majesty hath far better choice for my place, and with any that may succeed me let Sir William Pelham be first that may come.

I speak from my soul for her Majesty's service.

I am for myself upon an hour's warning to obey her good pleasure." Thus far the Earl had maintained his dignity.

He had yielded to the solicitations of the States, and had thereby exceeded his commission, and gratified his ambition, but he had in no wise forfeited his self-respect.
But--so soon as the first unquestionable intelligence of the passion to which the Queen had given way at his misdoings reached him--he began to whimper, The straightforward tone which Davison had adopted in his interviews with Elizabeth, and the firmness with which he had defended the cause of his absent friend, at a moment when he had plunged himself into disgrace, was worthy of applause.

He deserved at least a word of honest thanks.
Ignoble however was the demeanor of the Earl towards the man--for whom he had but recently been unable to invent eulogies sufficiently warm--so soon as he conceived the possibility of sacrificing his friend as the scape-goat for his own fault.