Now My Lord Burrows In The Beginning Of His Prosecution Died,
Whereupon The Queen Was Fully Bent To Send Over
My Lord Mountjoy;
which my Lord of Essex utterly misliked, and opposed with many
reasons, and by arguments of contempt
Towards Mountjoy (his then
professed friend and familiar) so predominant was his desire to reap
the whole honour of closing up that war, and all others; now the way
being paved and opened by his own workmanship, and so handled, that
none durst appear to stand in the place; at last, and with much ado,
he obtained his own ends, and therewith his fatal destruction,
leaving the Queen and the court, where he stood impregnable and firm
in her grace, to men that long had fought and waited their times to
give him a trip, and could never find any opportunity, but this of
his absence, and of his own creation; and those are true
observations of his appetite and inclinations, which were not of any
true proportion, but hurried and transported, with an over desire,
and thirstiness after fame, and that deceitful fame of popularity;
and, to help on his catastrophe, I observe likewise two sorts of
people that had a hand in his fall: the first was the soldiery,
which all flock unto him, as it were foretelling a mortality, and
are commonly of blunt and too rough counsels, and many times
dissonant from the time of the court and State; the other sort were
of his family, his servants and his own creatures, such as were
bound by safety, and obligations of fidelity, to have looked better
to the steering of that boat, wherein they themselves were carried,
and not to have suffered it to fleet, and run on ground, with those
empty sails of tumour of popularity and applause; methinks one
honest man or other, who had but the brushing of his clothes, might
have whispered in his ear, "My lord, look to it, this multitude that
follows you will either devour you, or undo you; do not strive to
overrule all, of it will cost hot water, and it will procure envy,
and if needs your genius must have it so, let the court and the
Queen's presence by your station, for your absence must undo you."
But, as I have said, they had sucked too much of their lord's milk,
and instead of withdrawing they drew {65} the coals of his ambition,
and infused into him too much of the spirit of glory, yea, and mixed
the goodness of his nature with a touch of revenge, which is
evermore accompanied with a destiny of the same fate. Of this
number there were some of insufferable natures about him, that
towards his last gave desperate advice, such as his integrity
abhorred, and his fidelity forbade, amongst whom Sir Henry Walton
notes, without injury, his Secretary Cuffe, as a vile man and of a
perverse nature: I could also name others that, when he was in the
right course of recovery, settling to moderation, would not suffer a
recess in him, but stirred up the dregs of those rude humours,
which, by times and his affections out of his own judgment, he
thought to repose and give them a vomit.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 57 of 65
Words from 30433 to 30976
of 35052
