Page:The house of Cecil.djvu/202

 174 THE CECILS

spondence private, lest the Queen's suspicions should be aroused, but on one occasion the secret nearly leaked out. The story is told by Sir Henry Wotton. 1

" The Queen having for a good while not heard anything from Scotland, and being thirsty of news, it fell out that her Majesty, going to take the air towards the Heath (the Court being then at Greenwich), and Master Secretary Cecil then attending her, a post came crossing by and blew his horn. The Queen, out of curiosity, asked him from whence the despatch came, and being answered ' From Scotland,' she stops the coach and calleth for the packet. The Secretary, though he knew there were in it some letters from his correspondents, which to discover were as so many serpents, yet made more show of diligence than of doubt to obey, and asks some one that stood by (forsooth in great haste) , for a knife to cut up the packet (for other- wise he might have awaked a little apprehension) ; but in the meantime approaching with the packet in his hand, at a pretty distance from the Queen, he telleth her it looked and smelt ill-favouredly, coming out of a filthy budget, and that it should be fit first to open and air it, because he knew she was averse from ill scents. And so, being dismissed home, he got leisure by this seasonable shift, to sever what he would not have seen."

The correspondence began between March and June, 1601, and seven letters exist from James to Cecil, and six from Cecil to James, 2 besides others through intermediaries. Cecil's first letter is of special importance, as it " contains an explanation of his past conduct, a vindication of the steps

1 Reliq. Wotton, ed. 1672, p. 169. Quoted by Bruce, p. xxxix. a There is a mistake in the numbering by Bruce.

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