All hopes of that are gone--let them go.
The rich Netherlands have demanded me for their leader, and, would Elizabeth consent, would yield to me THEIR crown.

And have I not such a claim even in this kingdom?
That of York, descending from George of Clarence to the House of Huntingdon, which, this lady failing, may have a fair chance--Huntingdon is of my house .-- But I will plunge no deeper in these high mysteries.

Let me hold my course in silence for a while, and in obscurity, like a subterranean river; the time shall come that I will burst forth in my strength, and bear all opposition before me." While Leicester was thus stupefying the remonstrances of his own conscience, by appealing to political necessity for his apology, or losing himself amidst the wild dreams of ambition, his agent left town and tower behind him on his hasty journey to Berkshire.

HE also nourished high hope.

He had brought Lord Leicester to the point which he had desired, of committing to him the most intimate recesses of his breast, and of using him as the channel of his most confidential intercourse with his lady.