Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/233

 1564.] THE EMBASSY OF DE SILVA. 213, him a greater earl and you shall see it done. I take him as my brother and my best friend/ She went on to say that she would have married Lord Robert herself had she been able. As she might not, she wished her sister to marry him ; and ' that done/ ' she would have no suspicion or fear of any usurpation before her death, being assured that Dudley was so loving and trusty that he would never permit anything to be attempted during her time.' 1 ' My Lord Robert's promotion in Scotland J October. is earnestly intended, Cecil wrote a few days later to Sir Thomas Smith. 2 On Michaelmas-day he was created Earl of Leicester at Westminster in Mel- ville's presence to qualify him for his higher destiny ; while Elizabeth, vain of his beauty, showed off his fair proportions and dwelt on the charms which she was sacrificing. Nor was she unaware of Melville's secret practices or of Mary's secret desires. ' You like better,' she said sadly to the ambassador, ' you like better yonder long lad ' pointing to Darnley, who, tall and slim with soft and beardless face, bore the sword of state at the cere- mony. To throw her off the scent Melville answered that ' no woman of spirit could choose such an one who more resembled a woman than a man.' ' I had no will,' he said of himself, ' that she should think that 1 had an eye that way, although I had a secret charge to deal 1 MELVILLE'S Memoirs. 2 Cecil to Smith. October 4 : WRIGHT, vol. i.