Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/440

 420 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 45. In a letter to Cecil he thus describes his reception : ' In the evening, after ten o'clock, I was sent for in secret manner, and being carried into a little closet in Edinburgh Castle the Queen came to me ; and so doing the duty belonging to a prince, I did offer my service, and with great courtesy she did receive me, and said I should be very welcome to her, and so began to ask me many questions of news from the Court of England and of the Queen and of the Lord Robert. I could say but little ; so being very late, she said she would next day confer with me in other causes, and willed me take my ease for the night. ' The next night after I was sent for again, and was brought to the same place, where the Queen came to me, she sitting down on a little coffer without a cushion and I kneeling beside. She began to talk of her father, Las- celles, and how much she was beholden to him, and how she trusted to find many friends in England, whensoever time did serve ; and did name Mr Stanley, Herbert, and Dacres, from whom she had received letters, and by means she did make account to win friendship of many of the nobility as the Duke of Norfolk, the Earls of Derby, Shrewsbury, Northumberland, Westmoreland, and Cumberland. She had better hopes of them for that she thought them all to be of the old religion, which she meant to restore again with all expedition, and thereby win the hearts of the common people. Besides this she practised to have two of the worshipful of every shire of England, and such as were of her religion, to be made her friends, and sought of me to know the names of such as