1 5 64. ] THE E MB ASS Y OF DE SILVA. 217 ' He desires them too to be careful how they proceed against the Catholics; the Queen will not have her good subjects goaded into sedition by calumnies -on their creed or by irritating inquiries into their conduct. I am told that the bishops do not like these cautions. Cecil understands his mistress and says nothing to her but what she likes to hear. He thus keeps her in good humour and maintains his position. Lord Robert is obliged to be on terms with him although at heart he hates him as much as ever. Cecil has more genius than the rest of the council put together and is therefore envied and hated on all sides. ' The Queen, happening to speak to me about the beginning of her reign, mentioned that circumstances had at first obliged her to dissemble her real feelings in religion ; but God knew, she said, that her heart was sound in his service ; with more to the same purpose : she wanted to persuade me that she was orthodox, but she was less explicit than I could have wished. ' I told her (she knew it already) that the preachers railed at her in the most insolent language for keeping the cross on the altar of her chapel. She answered that she meant to have crosses generally restored throughout the realm. 1 Again and again she has said to me, ' I am insulted both in England and abroad for having shown more favour than I ought to have shown to the Lord Robert. I am spoken of as if I were an immodest woman. I ought not to wonder at it : I have favoured him because of his excellent disposition and for his many merits ;
