“That the said Earl shall allow to the said Countess towards the defraying of the charges of household £300 and fuel until he shall yield to cohabitation, and doth also promise in respect of her Majesty’s mediation further gratuity of yearly provision for the maintenance of her said house.
“That the said Earl shall appoint four or five of his own men to attend upon the said Countess and shall pay them their wages.
“The said Earl promiseth her Majesty to resort sometimes to the house where the said Countess shall lie, as also to send for the said Countess upon notice given of her desire to some other house where he himself shall remain, and in case she shall so behave herself toward him as one that by good and dutiful ways [?] will do her best endeavour to recover his former good opinion and love, then it is to be hoped that continual cohabitation will follow, which her Majesty greatly desires.”
All this looks highly promising. It arouses glowing hopes in the minds of the onlookers that after many toils and dangers, social and political, such a man and such a woman, born to eminence and possessed of great qualities, will enjoy many happy years together, quit of their old intolerable burden, the care of “the Daughter of Debate.” Such a letter as this from the faithful Gilbert Dickenson, which welcomes my Lord home to his manor and his acres, telling of the folk who gather to greet him, and of the fatted calf in preparation, completes the picture:—
“May it please your Lo. to understand that divers honest men have heard of your Lo. coming home and would have come to meet your Lo. but that I have stayed them till I hear further of your Lo. pleasure; and there is such running from house to house to tell that your Lo. did lie at Wingfield all night and everyone preparing to meet your L.
“Your Lo. should come into the country with such love as never did man in England, which is a greater comfort to us than any worldly riches, and for sheep, oxen, and lambs shall not be wanting nor anything which can be got, God willing.”
Alack for love and hope! Only two months after this stately cavalcade of Earl and Lady travelled home, the Countess addressed the Treasurer again. She had sore complaints to make of her husband.
“My singular good Lord,” she wrote, “I most humbly and heartily thank your Lo. for your letter sent by my son William Cavendish. It is my greatest comfort that it pleaseth your Lo. to have care of me, else grief and displeasure would have ended my days. Since my coming into the country my Lo. my husband hath come to his home Wingfield, where I most remain, not past three times; more I have not seen him; he stayed not over a day at a time at his being here.... Since my coming down, he hath allowed me gross provisions as beef, mutton, and corn to serve my house, but now not long since he hath sent me word that he will not allow me any further and doth withdraw all his provision, not suffering me to have sufficient fire.”[[81]] She goes on to say that if all were as her Majesty desired and assured her, namely, that she might be always with her husband, she would not need such allowances of provision, etc. etc.
This attitude of the Earl strikes one as a little petty at this juncture. He had, after all, large estates and many houses, and there was no need to starve his lady out of Wingfield, even if their characters and moods were finally and utterly incompatible.
All through these years 1586–7 he was still worried by Gilbert’s affairs. The letters which follow explain themselves.