He lost it, and deserved to lose it, little as his enemies deserved to win it; for they, too, were doing what would have cost them their heads if Elizabeth had known it--corresponding, as Essex was accused of doing, with Scotland about the succession, and possibly with Spain.

But they were playing cautiously and craftily; he with bungling passion.

He had been so long accustomed to power and place, that he could not endure that rivals should keep him out of it.

They were content to have their own way, while affecting to be the humblest of servants; he would be nothing less than a Mayor of the Palace.

He was guilty of a great public crime, as every man is who appeals to arms for anything short of the most sacred cause.