EARL OF ESSEX.

NOT long after the Gowrie conspiracy, one broke out in England against queen Elizabeth, which, though the first danger was instantly dispelled, produced tragical effects, that rendered the close of the queen's reign dismal and unhappy. As James was deeply interested in that event, it merits our particular notice.

The court of England was at this time divided between two powerful factions, which contended for the supreme direction of affairs. The leader of the one was Robert D'Evreux, earl of Essex, sir Robert Cecil, the son of lord Treasurer Burleigh, was at the head of the other. The former was the most accomplished and the most popular of all the English nobles; brave, generous, affable; though impetuous, yet willing to listen to the counsels of those whom he loved; an avowed but not an implacable enemy; a friend no less constant than warm; incapable of disguising his own sentiments, or of misrepresenting those of others; better fitted for the camp than for the court; and of a genius that qualified him for the first place in the julministration, with a spirit that scorned the second wit below his merit. He was soon distinguished the who with a profusion uncommon to mr queen, er, conferred on him, even in his earliest youth, the highest honours, and most important offices. Nor did this diminish the esteem and affection of his countrymen; but, by a rare felicity, he was at once the favourite of his sovereign, and the darling of the people. Cecil, on the other hand, educated in a court, and trained under a father deeply skilled in all its arts, was crafty, insinuating, industrious; and though possessed of talents which fitted him for the highest offices, he did not rely upon his merit

alone for attaining them, but availed himself of every advantage which his own address, or the mistakes of others afforded him. Two such men were formed to be rivals and enemies. Essex despised the arts of Cecil as low and base. To Cecil the earl's magnanimity appeared to be presumption and folly. All the military men, except Raleigh, favoured Essex. Most of the courtiers adhered to Cecil, whose manners more nearly resembled their own.

As Elizabeth advanced in years, the struggle between these factions became more violent. Essex, in order to strengthen himself, had early courted the friendship of the king of Scots, for whose right of succession he was a zealous advocate, and held a close correspondence both with him and with his principal ministers. Cecil, devoted to the queen alone, rose daily to new honours, by the assiduity of his services, and the patience with which he expected the reward of them; while the earl's high spirit and impetuosity sometimes exposed him to checks from a mistress, who, though partial in her affection toward him, could not easily bear contradiction, and who conferred favours often unwillingly, and always slowly. His own solicitations, however, seconded maliciously by his enemies, who wished to remove him at a distance from court, advanced him to the command of the army employed in Ireland against Tyronne, and to the office of lord-lieutenant of that kingdom, with a commission almost unlimited. His success in that expedition did not equal either his own promises or the expectations of Elizabeth. The queen, peevish from her disappointment, and exasperated against Essex by the artifices of his enemies, wrote him a harsh letter, full of accusations and reproaches. These his impatient spirit could not bear, and, in the first transports of his resentment, he proposed to carry over a part of his army into England, and, by dri

ving his enemies from the queen's presence, to reinstate himself in favour and in power. But, upon more mature thoughts, he abandoned this rash design, and, setting sail with a few officers devoted to his person, landed in England, and posted directly to court. Elizabeth received him without any symptom either of affection or of displeasure. By proper compliances and acknowledgments, he might have regained his former ascendant over the queen. But he thought himself too deeply injured to submit to these. Elizabeth, on the other hand, determined to subdue his haughty temper; and though her severity drew from him the most humble letters, she confined him to the lord keeper's house, and appointed commissioners to try him, both for his conduct during his government of Ireland, and for leaving that kingdom without her permission. By their sentence, he was suspended from all his offices, except that of master of the horse, and continued a prisoner during the queen's pleasure. Satisfied with having mortified his pride thus far, Elizabeth did not suffer the sentence to be recorded, and soon after allowed him to retire to his own house. During these transactions, which occupied several months, Essex fluctuated between the allegiance he owed to his sovereign, and the desire of revenge; and sometimes leaned to the one, and sometimes to the other. In one of the intervals when the latter prevailed, he sent a messenger into Scotland, to encourage the king to assert his own right to the succession by force of arms, and to promise that, besides the assistance of the earl and all his friends in England, lord Mountjoy, now lord-lieutenant of Ireland, would join him with five thousand men from that kingdom. But James did not choose to hazard the losing a kingdom, which was just ready to fall into his hands, by a premature attempt to seize it. Mountjoy, too, declined

the enterprise, and Essex adopted more dutiful schemes; all thoughts of ambition appearing to be totally effaced out of his mind.

This moderation, which was merely the effect of disgust and disappointment, was not of long continuance; and the queen, having not only refused to renew a lucrative grant which she had formerly bestowed, but even to admit him into her presence, that new injury drove a temper naturally impatient, and now much fretted, to absolute despair. His friends, instead of soothing his rage or restraining his impetuosity, added to both by their imprudent and interested zeal. After many anxious consultations, he determined to attempt to redress his wrongs by violence. But conscious how unpopular such an enterprise would be, if it appeared to proceed from motives of private revenge alone, he endeavoured to give it the semblance of public utility, by mingling the king of Scotland's interest with his own. He wrote to James, that the faction which now predominated in the English court had resolved to support the pretensions of the infanta of Spain to the crown; that the places of the greatest importance in the kingdom were put into the hands of his avowed enemies; and that unless he sent ambassadors, without delay, to insist on the immediate declaration of his right of succession, their measures were so well concerted, that all his hopes would be desperate. James, who knew how disagreeable such a proposal would be to the queen of England, was not willing rashly to expose himself to her displeasure. But Essex, blinded by resentment, impatient for revenge, abandoned himself to these passions, and acted like a man guided by frenzy and despair. With two or three hundred followers incompletely armed, he attempted to assault a throne the best established in Europe. Sallying at their head out of his own house, he called

on the citizens of London, if they either valued his life, or wished to preserve the kingdom from the dominion of the Spaniards, to take arms, and to follow his standard. He advanced towards the palace with an intention to drive Cecil and his faction out of the queen's presence, and to obtain a declaration of the Scottish king's right of succession. But, though almost adored by the citizens, not a man would join him in this wild enterprise. Dispirited by their indifference, deserted by some of his own attendants, and almost surrounded by the troops which marched against him under different leaders into the city, he retreated to his own house; and without any bold effort, suitable to his present condition, or worthy of his former reputation for courage, he surrendered to his enemies.

As soon as James heard of Essex's ill success, he appointed the earl of Mar, and Bruce, abbot of Kinloss, to repair as his ambassadors to the court of England. The former of these was the person by whose means Essex had carried on his correspondence with the king. He was a passionate admirer of the earl's character, and disposed to attempt every thing that might contribute to his safety. Bruce, united in a close friendship with Mar, was ready to second him with equal zeal. Nor was the purpose of the embassy less friendly to Essex, than the choice of his ambassadors; they were commanded to solicit, in the warmest manner, for the earl's life, and if they found that the king, by avowing his friends, could either promote their designs, or contribute to their safety, they were empowered to lay aside all disguise, and to promise that he would put himself at their head, and claim what was due to him by force of arms. But before the ambassadors could reach London, Essex had suffered the punishment which he merited by his