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as he passed through Portugal and Spain, and in a letter to the Earl of Arundel l he has described the somewhat embarrassing audiences which he had with Philip III. and his son, both of whom stood immovable like statues, leaning against a table, and gave grave and courteous replies without any change of countenance. At his departure the King presented him with a jewel worth 5,000, but though peace was soon afterwards concluded between Spain and Savoy, contemporary gossip judged that Lord Roos had " succeeded ill in his negotiation, another argu- ment of his great weakness." 2

Shortly before he had set out upon this mission, Roos had married Elizabeth Lake, daughter of Sir Thomas Lake, who had succeeded the Earl of Salisbury as Secretary of State. The marriage was in every way disastrous. " He was a dissolute, a heartless youth, and both Lady Roos and her mother, Lady Lake, were alike, artful and unprincipled women." 3 A quarrel soon arose, owing to an arrangement about the conveyance of some property, which the Lakes tried to extort by unfair means. On Lord Roos' return from Spain, he was subjected to every kind of insult and threat by his wife and his mother-in-law, until he could stand their " diabolical devices " no longer and determined on flight. Pretending

1 January, 1617 (Lodge, Illustrations of British History, III. 286). a Ed. Sherburn to Carleton, April 6th, 1617 (Cal. S. P. Dom., IX

458).

8 Gardiner, Vol. III., Chap. XXVII. See also Spedding, Life and Letters of Bacon, Vol. VII.

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