[280] Letter to a friend, in Strype iii. 2, 379. Certain true general notes upon the actions of Lord Burleigh, in Strype iii. 2, 505. A letter from Leicester is in existence, in which he tries to prove that William Cecil had obligations to his father and not merely to the Protector.
[281] Naunton, Fragmenta regalia.
[282] Sir H. Nicolas, Life and Times of Christopher Hatton, communicates (p. 30) fragments of the Queen's letters, which lead him to remark that the supposition of an immoral relation (which he elsewhere adopts) is refuted by them. The Queen inquires for instance, What is friendship? 'The union of two minds bound to each other by virtue. He is no more a friend who desires more than the other can reasonably grant.'
[283] Herrera, Historia del mundo iii. 754.
[284] Device made by the Earl of Essex: Devereux, Lives and Letters of the Devereux, Earls of Essex, ii. App. F.
[285] Herrera complains at first of the 'ministros infideles' of the Queen: among them he names Essex.
[286] In Winwood, Memorials i.
[287] Rowland Whyte to Sir Robert Sidney, Michaelmass Day 1599 (the day after the Earl's arrival). Sidney Papers ii. 127.
[288] 'I could not but see and feel what misery was near unto my country by the great power of such as are known indeed to be atheists papists and pensioners of the mortal enemies of this kingdom.' Confession to Ashton, in Devereux ii. 165.
[289] 'As foreseeing that the rebel will never suffer the King to live or reign, who might permit or take revenge of the treason and rebellion.' In Campbell, Lives of the Lord Chancellors ii. 199.