Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/337

 I573-L FHE SPANISH TREATY. 317 and made men loyal in spite of themselves bv persist- ently trusting them. Her manners were eminently popular. She was hard of feature and harsh of voice : ' her humours/ as Sir T. Heneage expressed it, 'had not grown weak with age : ' but she was free of access to her presence, quick- witted,, and familiar of speech with men of all degrees. She rode, shot, jested, and drank beer ; spat, and swore upon occasions ; swore not like ' a comfit-maker's wife,'' but round, mouth-filling oaths which would have satis- fied Hotspur, the human character showing always through the royal robes, yet with the queenly dignity never so impaired that liberties could be ventured in return. The public policy of the realm was in the main di- rected by Burghley, but his measures were at all times liable to be suspended or reversed. She had a second ear always open to Catholic advisers pensioners, some of them, of Spain in the household and the cabinet. Her ladies of the bedchamber were for the most part the friends and correspondents of Mary Stuart. Her favourite courtiers, men like Lord Oxford and Lord Henry Howard, were the most poisonous instruments of Spanish intrigue. Her ' new minion/ as he was spite- fully called abroad, Leicester's rival, Sir Christopher Hatton, was a Catholic in all but the name. The rela- tions of Elizabeth with these persons, however insolent- ly remarked upon by the refugees and malignants, were never generally misunderstood, and if regretted, were regretted only for public reasons by her wiser statesmen.