Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/354

340 those of Scotland, in which kingdom she was more powerful than its sovereign, by protecting the protestant leaders. Cabals about the second marriage of Mary, after the death of the king of France, continued for some years. This was an important event to Elizabeth, whom the former soon wearied with importunities to declare her right to the succession, a measure that she felt pregnant with danger and uneasiness to herself, and which she could not be persuaded to take. To have chosen a husband would have decided the difficulty, and answered the wishes of her people, but many reasons made her averse to the proposal. She was skilful in governing, saw the beneficial effects of the system she had adopted, and was jealous of anything that could interfere with her authority. A husband might be tempted to snatch the reins from her hand, his opposition might impede the freedom of her actions, and his passions disconcert the system of political wisdom which, by the means of Cecil and her other ministers, she had established. Yet Elizabeth was by no means indifferent to the homage of lovers: the archduke Charles, Eric king of Sweden, the duke of Holstein, and when she was more advanced in life, the young duke of Anjou, were by turns amused and disappointed; and she distinguished one of her subjects, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, by a peculiar partiality. But Elizabeth, amidst the weakness of vanity, and individual preference, still preserved her understanding uninfluenced. When the great Sully, who came as ambassador from Henry IV. conversed with her on the situation of affairs in Europe, he was lost in astonishment to hear her speak with such perspicuity, promptness, and discernment, and was then convinced that she herself was the source whence the energy of her government was derived, and found that she had a