Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/206

 igo REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 64. so good a purpose would not fail for so small a sum. He had ventured to put them in hope that it would be conceded, and if it fell out otherwise he would have done ill service. ' For my own part,' he said, ' though my estate be very poor and my debts great, yet rather than the yielding of the support should not take place, I would myself sell anything I have to contribute a thousand pounds towards the same, so greatly do I see it import her Majesty's safety.' 1 The general success of Elizabeth passes for a suffi- cient answer to doubts cast upon her ability. Effects must have had causes equal to them, and that she left England at her death the first of European powers is accepted as proof that she was herself the first of 7 princes. It was not however the ability of Elizabeth, it was the temper of the English nation which raised her in her own despite to the high place which she ultimately filled. The genius and daring of her Pro- testant subjects, of whom Walsingham was no more than a brilliant representative, formed the splendid pedestal on which her own small figure was lifted into dignity. When Walsingham's letter came she was alternately hysterical and furious. She cried like a child, sobbing out that she knew not what to do. She had sacrificed herself for Leicester, she said ; Leicester had persuaded her to her ruin. Then she raged at Walsingham. Wal- Walsiugham to Burghlcy, August 10, II : MSS. France.