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1Philip of Spain, Philip II., husband of Queen Mary, upon whose death Elizabeth came to the throne. 2transports, ships used for carrying soldiers, warlike stores, etc. Tilbury, the name of a fort in Essex, on the left bank of the Thames. chiefest, chief is the modern form; chiefest was frequently used in Queen Elizabeth's time. disport, diversion, amusement. stomach, pride. forwardness, zeal, boldness, ardour. concord, harmony, union, agreement.

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NOTE.-For Armada, see Appendix.

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THE DEATH OF ELIZABETH.

lieu-ten'-ant gor'-geous

pre'-ju-dic-es
ob'-sti-na-cy

de-spon'-den-cy pre-sump'-tu-ous

THE triumph of her lieutenant, 1Mountjoy, flung its lustre over the last days of Elizabeth, but no outer triumph could break the gloom which gathered round the dying Queen. Lonely as she had always been, her loneliness deepened as she drew towards the grave. The statesmen and warriors of her earlier days had dropped one by one from her council board; and their successors were watching her last moments, and intriguing for favour in the coming reign. The old splendour of her court waned and disappeared. As she passed along in her progresses, the people, whose applause she courted, remained cold and silent. The temper of the age, in fact, was changing, and isolating her as it changed. She had enjoyed life as the men of her day enjoyed it, and now that they were gone she clung to it with a fierce 5 tenacity. She hunted, she danced, she jested with her young favourites, she coquetted and scolded, and frolicked at sixty-seven as she had done at thirty. "The Queen," wrote a courtier, a few months before her death, 66 was never so gallant these many years, nor so set upon jollity." She persisted, in spite of opposition, in her gorgeous progresses from

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country-house to country-house. She clung to business as of old, and rated in her usual fashion. But death crept on. Her face became haggard, and her frame shrank almost to a skeleton. At last, her taste for finery disappeared, and she refused to change her dresses for a week together. A strange melancholy settled down on her. "She held in her hand," says one who saw her in her last days," a golden cup, which she often put to her lips; but in truth her heart seemed too full to need more filling."

Some incidents happened which revived her tenderness for Essex, and filled her with the deepest sorrow for the consent which she had unwarily given to his execution.

The Earl of Essex, after his return from the fortunate expedition against 'Cadiz, observing the increase of the Queen's fond attachment towards him, took occasion to regret that the necessity of her service required him often to be absent from her person, and exposed him to all those ill offices which his enemies, more assiduous in their attendance, could employ against him. She was moved with this tender jealousy; and, making him the present of a ring, desired him to keep that pledge of her affection, and assured him that into whatever disgrace he should fall, whatever prejudices she might be induced to entertain against him, yet, if he sent her that ring, she would immediately, upon sight of it, recall her former tenderness, and would lend a favourable ear to his apology. Essex, notwithstanding all his misfortunes, reserved this precious gift to the last extremity; but after his trial and condemnation, he resolved to try the experiment, and he committed the ring to the Countess of Nottingham, whom he desired to deliver it to the Queen. The countess was prevailed on by her husband, the mortal enemy of Essex, not to execute the commission; and Elizabeth, who still expected

that her favourite would make this last appeal to her tenderness, and who ascribed the neglect of it to his invincible obstinacy, was, after much delay and many internal combats, pushed by resentment and policy to sign the warrant for his execution. The Countess of Nottingham falling into sickness, and affected with the near approach of death, was seized with remorse for her conduct; and having obtained a visit from the Queen, she craved her pardon, and revealed to her the fatal secret. The Queen, astonished at this incident, burst into a furious passion; she shook the dying countess in her bed, and crying to her that God might pardon her, but she never could, she broke from her, and thenceforth resigned herself over to the deepest and most incurable melancholy. She rejected all consolation; she even refused food and sustenance; and throwing herself on the floor, she remained sullen and immovable, feeding her thoughts on her afflictions, and declaring life and existence an insufferable burden to her. Few words she uttered, and they were all expressive of some inward grief which she cared not to reveal; but sighs and groans were the chief vent which she gave to her despondency. Ten days and nights she lay upon the carpet, leaning on cushions which her maids brought her; and her physicians could not persuade her to make trial of any remedies which they prescribed to her.

Gradually her mind gave way. She lost her memory, the violence of her temper became unbearable, her very courage seemed to forsake her. She called for a sword to lie constantly beside her, and thrust it from time to time through the arras, as if she heard murderers stirring there. Food and rest became alike distasteful. She sate day and night propped up with pillows on a stool, her finger on her lip, her eyes fixed on the floor, without a VI.-Moffatt's Ex. Reader.

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word. If she once broke the silence, it was with a flash of her old queenliness. 1o Cecil asserted that she "must go to bed, and the word roused her like a trumpet. "Must!" she exclaimed; "is must a word to be addressed to princes? Little man, little man! thy father, if he had been alive, durst not have used that word." Then, as her anger spent itself, she sank into her old dejection. "Thou art so presumptuous," she said, "because thou knowest I shall die." She rallied once more when the ministers beside her bed named Lord Beauchamp, the heir to the Suffolk claim, as a possible successor. "I will have no rogue's son," she cried hoarsely, "in my seat." But she gave no sign, save a motion of the head, at the mention of the King of Scots. She was, in fact, fast becoming insensible; and early the next morning the life of Elizabeth, a life so great, so strange and lonely in its greatness, passed quietly away.

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J. R. GREEN.

1 Mountjoy, Lord Mountjoy, who defeated Tyrone, the head of the rebellion in Ireland, and reduced that country to submission, in 1603, the year of Elizabeth's death. intriguing, plotting; scheming. 3wane, to become gradually less, like the moon after it has passed the full. isolating, causing any person or thing to be alone. 5 tenacity, holding fast; stubbornness, firmness. gorgeous, splendid; magnificent. Cadiz, a seaport on the southwest coast of Spain. assiduous, constant ; untiring; persevering. arras, the tapestry or woven hangings with which walls were formerly covered. It derived its name from Arras, a town in France, famous for the manufacture of this kind of material. 10 Cecil, Sir Robert Cecil, son of Lord Burleigh, the famous chief minister of Queen Elizabeth.

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THE OCEAN.

THERE is a pleasure in the pathless woods
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar :
I love not Man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the universe, and feel

What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.

Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean-roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain :
Man marks the earth with ruin-his control
Stops with the shore ;-upon the watery plain
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain
A shadow of man's ravage, save his own,
When for a moment, like a drop of rain,

He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, Without a grave, 'unknell'd, uncoffin'd, and unknown.

His steps are not upon thy paths,--thy fields
Are not a spoil for him,—thou dost arise

And shake him from thee; the vile strength he wields
For earth's destruction thou dost all despise,
Spurning him from thy bosom to the skies,
And send'st him, shivering in thy playful spray,
And howling, to his gods, where haply lies
His petty hope in some near port or bay,

And dashest him again to earth :- there let him 2lay.

The 'armaments which thunderstrike the walls
Of rock-built cities, bidding nations quake
And monarchs tremble in their capitals,
The oak 'leviathans, whose huge ribs make
Their clay creator the vain title take

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