DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

( 20) who used Mary Stuart’s name and position to give a legitimate colour to their intrigues. But, wavering and vain, avaricious and menda- cious, as Elizabeth was, her very faults promoted the interests of England. The whole world was arrayed against England. France intrigued through Mary Stuart; Spain armed against England ; the Catholics fought with the Protestants and against Elizabeth. Elizabeth had to guard against a thou- sand enemies and false friends ; and it was only by playing off one against the other, by temporising with them, that she averted the perils with which she was beset, and hit on the right policy, to meet the emergency. Moreover, her faults were rather superficial than inherent in her nature. In reality she had un- bounded courage, an indomitable will, a stern resolution, combined with an intense love for her country. If she persecuted Catholics in public, she herself was insensible to fear. Though her life was the mark for assassin after assassin, she never took any precautions for her personal safety ; and when Catholic plots broke out in her very household she refused to dismiss any Catholics from her Court. If she lied to the Spanish ambassador so audaciously on one occasion that he wrote to his master of the Queen, ‘That woman is possessed with ten thousand devils ;’ on another, when he reproached her for her