Though she used him "for matters of state and revenue," she either did not like him, or did not see in him the servant she wanted to advance.

He went on to the last pressing his uncle, Lord Burghley.

He applied in the humblest terms, he made himself useful with his pen, he got his mother to write for him; but Lord Burghley, probably because he thought his nephew more of a man of letters than a sound lawyer and practical public servant, did not care to bring him forward.

From his cousin, Robert Cecil, Bacon received polite words and friendly assurances.

Cecil may have undervalued him, or have been jealous of him, or suspected him as a friend of Essex; he certainly gave Bacon good reason to think that his words meant nothing.
Except Essex, and perhaps his brother Antony--the most affectionate and devoted of brothers--no one had yet recognised all that Bacon was.
Meanwhile time was passing.