and there she sat in council for the first time with them, November 20th. Sir Thomas Parry, the cofferer of her household, Cave, Rogers, and sir William Cecil, were sworn in as members. Her majesty's address to Cecil, on that occasion, is a noble summary of the duties which he was expected to perform to his queen and country:

"I give you this charge, that you shall be of my privy council, and content yourself to take pains for me and my realm. This judgment I have of you,-that you will not be corrupted by any manner of gift, and that you will be faithful to the state; and that, without respect to my private will, you will give me that counsel which you think best, and if you shall know any thing necessary to be declared to me of secrecy, you shall show it to myself only, and assure yourself I will not fail to keep taciturnity therein; and therefore herewith I charge you.”

Elizabeth left no room for doubt or speculation among the eager competitors for her favour, as to the minister whom she intended to guide the helm of state, for she accepted a note of advice from sir William Cecil, on the most urgent matters that required her attention, that very day, and appointed him her principal secretary of state. The political tie that was then knit between Cecil and his royal mistress, though occasionally shaken, was only broken by the death of that great statesman, who was able to elevate or bend the powers of his acute intellect to all matters of government, from measures that rendered England the arbitress of Europe, to the petty details of the milliner and tailor in sumptuary laws.

Elizabeth commenced her progress to her metropolis November 23rd, attended by a magnificent retinue of lords, ladies, and gentlemen, and a prodigious concourse of people, who poured out of London and its adjacent villages to behold and welcome her. On the road to Highgate she met a procession of the bishops, who kneeled by the way-side and offered her their allegiance, which was very graciously accepted. She gave to every one of them her hand to kiss, excepting Bonner bishop of London. This exception she made to mark her abhorrence of his cruelty. The lord mayor and aldermen, in their scarlet gowns, likewise met

3

2 Harrington's Nugæ Antiquæ. Strype. Strype. Citizens' Journal. Holinshed, vol. ii. p. 1784. Stowe's Annals, 634.

her, and conducted her in great state to the Charter-house, then the town residence of lord North: lord chancellor Heath, and the earls of Derby and Shrewsbury, received her there. She stayed at the Charter-house five days, and sat in council every day. She left this place Monday, "November 28, to take possession of her royal fortress of the Tower. Immense crowds assembled to greet her, and to gaze on her, both without and within the city gates, and a mighty retinue of the nobility of both sexes surrounded her. Seated in a rich chariot, she proceeded from the Charterhouse along the Barbican till she reached Cripplegate, where the lord mayor and city authorities received her; then she mounted on horseback, and entered the city in equestrian procession. She was attired in a riding-dress of purple velvet, with a scarf tied over her shoulder; the sergeants-atarms guarded her. Lord Robert Dudley, as master of the horse, rode next her: thus early was this favourite exalted to the place he held so long. The lord mayor preceded her, carrying her sceptre, and by his side rode Garter king-atarms lord Pembroke bore the sword of state before his royal mistress. The queen rode along London-wall, then a regular fortification, which was richly hung with tapestry, and the city waits sounded loud music. She rode up

2

Leadenhall-street to Gracechurch-street, called by our citizen journalist "Grasschurch-street," till she arrived at the Blanch Chapelton, at the entry of the Mart or Market-lane, now the well-known Mark-lane, still the corn-mart of England, though few who transact business there are aware of the extreme antiquity of their station.

When the queen arrived at the Blanch Chapelton, the Tower guns began to herald her approach, and continued discharging all the while she progressed down Mart-lane and Tower-street; she was greeted at various places by playing on regals, singing of children, and speeches from the scholars of Saint Paul's school. "The presence of the

1 Strype. Citizens' Journal.

2 An ecclesiastical structure mentioned in Holinshed and the Citizens' Journal, since swept away by the fire of London.

queen," says an eye-witness,' "gave life to all these solemnities: she promptly answered all speeches made to her, she graced every person either of dignity or office, and so cheerfully noticed and accepted every thing, that, in the judgment of the beholders, these great honours were esteemed too mean for her personal worth." Deeply had Elizabeth studied her métier du roi before she had an opportunity of rehearsing her part. Fortunately for her, the pride and presumption of youth had been a little tamed by early misfortune, and, stimulated by the inexorable necessity of self-defence, she had been forced to look into human character, and adapt her manners to her interest. Adversity had taught her the invaluable lesson embodied by Wordsworth in these immortal words,

"Of friends, however humble, scorn not one."

As she entered the Tower, she majestically addressed those about her. "Some," said she, "have fallen from being princes of this land to be prisoners in this place; I am raised from being prisoner in this place to be prince of this land. That dejection was a work of God's justice; this advancement is a work of his mercy: as they were to yield patience for the one, so I must bear myself to God thankful, and to men merciful, for the other." It is said that she immediately went to her former prison apartment, where she fell on her knees and offered up aloud an extempore prayer, in which she compared herself to Daniel in the lion's den. Elizabeth remained in the Tower till the 5th of December, holding daily councils of mighty import connected with the establishment of her sagacious plans for the civil and religious government of her realm. She proceeded with great caution, in order to ascertain what members of the late queen's council would coalesce with her own party, which comprised the remnants of the administration of Edward VI.,-Cecil, Bacon, Sadler, Parr, Russell, and the Dudleys.

1 Hayward, p. 10.

* Edmund Calamy, in his auto-biography, says, "I often, when going to school in Winchester-street, London, conversed with a poor old man above a hundred and twenty years old, who assured me that he, when a child, saw queen Elizabeth make her entry into this city when she came from Hatfield." Calamy was born in 1671, and his colloquies with this centenarian must have occurred about 1683.

Meantime, mass was said at the funerals of queen Mary, of cardinal Pole, and the two deceased bishops, whose obsequies were solemnized according to the rites of the ancient church. Elizabeth attended in person at her sister's interment, and listened attentively to her funeral sermon, preached by Dr. White, bishop of Winchester, which was in Latin. The proverb, that "comparisons are odious," was truly illustrated by this celebrated discourse, which sir John Harrington calls "a black sermon." It contained a biographical sketch of the late queen, in which he mentioned with great praise her renunciation of church supremacy, and repeated her observation, "that as Saint Paul forbade women to speak in the church, it was not fitting for the church to have a dumb head." This was not very pleasant to Elizabeth, who had either just required the oath of supremacy to be administered, or was agitating that matter in the privy council. Had Dr. White preached in English, his sermon might have done her much mischief. When the bishop described the grievous suffering of queen Mary, he fell into such a fit of weeping, that his voice was choked for a time. In conclusion, he observed "that queen Mary had left a sister, a lady of great worth also, whom they were bound to obey; for," said he, "melior est canis vivus leone mortuo." Elizabeth was too good a Latinist not to fire at this elegant simile, which declared "that a living dog was better than a dead lion;" nor did the orator content himself with this currish comparison, for he roundly asserted "that the dead deserved more praise than the living, for Mary had chosen the better part." As the bishop of Winchester descended the pulpit stairs, Elizabeth ordered him under arrest. He defied her majesty, and threatened her with excommunication, for which she cared not a rush. He was a prelate of austere but irreproachable manners, exceedingly desirous of testifying his opinions by a public martyrdom, which he did and said all in his power to obtain; Elizabeth was, at that period of her life, too wise to indulge him with that distinction.

No author but the faithful and accurate Stowe has noted

Nuga Antiquæ, vol. ii. pp. 84, 85. Camden; life of Elizabeth.

the important result of the daily deliberations held by the queen and her privy council at Somerset-house at this epoch. He says, "The queen began then to put in practice that oath of supremacy which her father first ordained, and amongst the many that refused that oath was my lord chancellor, Dr. Heath. The queen, having a good respect for him, would not deprive him of his title, but committed the custody of the great seal to Nicholas Bacon, attorney of the wards, who from that time was called lord keeper, and exercised the authority of lord chancellor, as confirmed by act of parliament." This oath of supremacy was the test which sifted the council from those to whom the ancient faith was matter of conscience; those to whom it was matter of worldly business remained. Among these were lord William Howard, her majesty's uncle and entire friend, Sackville her cousin, and the earl of Arundel her lover. The marquess of Winchester acted according to his characteristic description of his own mean policy, by playing the part of the willow rather than the oak,' and from one of the most cruel of Elizabeth's persecutors, became at once the supplest of her instruments. His example was imitated by others in this list, who for the most part appeared duly impressed with the spirit of the constitutional maxim, "The crown takes away all defects."

Elizabeth acted much as Mary did at her accession. She forbade any one to preach without her licence, and ostensibly left the rites of religion as she found them, but for a time wholly locked up the famous pulpit of political sermons, St. Paul's-cross. Meantime, mass was daily celebrated in the chapel-royal, and throughout the realm; and the queen, though well known to be a Protestant, conformed outwardly to the ceremonial observances of the church of Rome.

It was desirable that the coronation of Elizabeth should

1 Stowe's Chronicle, black letter, folio 635.

2 Naunton's Fragmenta Regalia.

3 This step, so important to her personal and regnal life, is left in the deepest obscurity by all but Stowe, who was, it ought to be remembered, persecuted by the privy council for his historical labours.

Holinshed, first edition, vol. ii., p. 1785.