History of the United Netherlands, 1586 part 1 | Page 3

be neither good service done, nor be without great
dishonour to her Majesty . . . . . Well, you see the wants, and it is one
cause that will glad me to be rid of this heavy high calling, and wish me
at my poor cottage again, if any I shall find. But let her Majesty pay
them well, and appoint such a man as Sir William Pelham to govern
them, and she never wan more honour than these men here will do, I
am persuaded."

That the Earl was warmly urged by all most conversant with
Netherland politics to assume the government was a fact admitted by
all. That he manifested rather eagerness than reluctance on the subject,
and that his only hesitation arose from the proposed restraints upon the
power, not from scruples about accepting the power, are facts upon
record. There is nothing save his own assertion to show any
backwardness on his part to snatch the coveted prize; and that assertion
was flatly denied by Davison, and was indeed refuted by every
circumstance in the case. It is certain that he had concealed from
Davison the previous prohibitions of the Queen. He could anticipate
much better than could Davison, therefore, the probable indignation of
the Queen. It is strange then that he should have shut his eyes to it so
wilfully, and stranger still that he should have relied on the envoy's
eloquence instead of his own to mitigate that emotion. Had he placed
his defence simply upon its true basis, the necessity of the case, and the
impossibility of carrying out the Queen's intentions in any other way, it
would be difficult to censure him; but that he should seek to screen
himself by laying the whole blame on a subordinate, was enough to
make any honest man who heard him hang his head. "I meant not to do
it, but Davison told me to do it, please your Majesty, and if there was
naughtiness in it, he said he would make it all right with your Majesty."
Such, reduced to its simplest expression, was the defence of the
magnificent Earl of Leicester.
And as he had gone cringing and whining to his royal mistress, so it
was natural that he should be brutal and blustering to his friend.
"By your means," said he, "I have fallen into her Majesty's deep
displeasure . . . . . If you had delivered to her the truth of my dealing,
her Highness never could have conceived, as I perceive she doth . . . . .
Nor doth her Majesty know how hardly I was drawn to accept this
place before I had acquainted her--as to which you promised you would
not only give her full satisfaction, but would, procure me great
thanks. . . . . You did chiefly persuade me to take this charge upon
me . . . . You can remember how many treaties you and others had with
the States, before I agreed; for all yours and their persuasion to take
it . . . . . You gave me assurance to satisfy her Majesty, but I see not
that you have done anything . . . . I did not hide from you the doubt I
had of her Majesty's ill taking it . . . . . You chiefly brought me into

it . . . . and it could no way have been heavy to you, though you had
told the uttermost of your own doing, as you faithfully promised you
would . . . . . I did very unwillingly come into the matter, doubting that
to fall out which is come to pass . . . . and it doth so fall out by your
negligent carelessness, whereof I many hundred times told you that you
would both mar the goodness of the matter, and breed me her Majesty's
displeasure . . . . . Thus fare you well, and except your embassages have
better success, I shall have no cause to commend them."
And so was the unfortunate Davison ground into finest dust between
the upper and lower millstones of royal wrath and loyal subserviency.
Meantime the other special envoy had made his appearance in the
Netherlands; the other go-between between the incensed Queen and the
backsliding favourite. It has already been made sufficiently obvious, by
the sketch given of his instructions, that his mission was a delicate one.
In obedience to those instructions, Heneage accordingly made his
appearance before the council, and, in Leicester's presence, delivered to
them the severe and biting reprimand which Elizabeth had chosen to
inflict upon the States and upon the governor. The envoy performed his
ungracious task as daintily, as he could, and after preliminary
consultation with Leicester; but the proud