could have been purchased for eighteen shillings--hardly the price of a fatted pig, and not one-third the value of an ambling palfrey--and a male villain, such an one as could in Elizabeth's reign circumnavigate the globe in his own ship, or take imperial field-marshals by the beard, was worth but two or three pounds sterling in the market.

Here was progress in three centuries, for the villains were now become admirals and generals in England and Holland, and constituted the main stay of these two little commonwealths, while the commanders who governed the 'invincible' fleets and armies of omnipotent Spain, were all cousins of emperors, or grandees of bluest blood.

Perhaps the system of the reformation would not prove the least effective in the impending crisis.
It was most important, then, that these two nations should be united in council, and should stand shoulder to shoulder as their great enemy advanced.

But this was precisely what had been rendered almost impossible by the course of events during Leicester's year of administration, and by his sudden but not final retirement at its close.

The two great national parties which had gradually been forming, had remained in a fluid state during the presence of the governor-general.