216 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 43. Among these last was Leicester that very Leicester in whose affection Elizabeth was blindly confiding, who was to be her own protection when she had named Mary Stuart her heir. The man who thought it no pre- posterous ambition to aspire to the hand of Elizabeth, excused himself to Melville with abject apologies as having been forced to appear as the suitor of a princess whose shoes he was unworthy to loose ; he implored the Queen of Scots to pardon him for ' the proud pre tences which were set forward for his undoing by Cecil and his secret enemies/ l On the position and views of Lord Robert on the state of feeling at the Court on the Scotch and other questions additional light is thrown by a letter of de Silva written on the 9th of October. DE SILVA TO PHILIP. 2 London, October 9. ' The gentleman sent hither from the Court of Scot- land has returned, and this Queen has written by him to say that for various reasons there will be no Parlia- ment this year. The succession question therefore will be allowed to rest. She says she is not so old that her death need be so perpetually dragged before her. ' Cecil has intimated to the heretical bishops that they must look to their clergy ; the Queen is determined to bring them to order and will no longer tolerate their extravagances. 1 MELVILLE'S Memoirs. 7 JUS. Simancas.
