280 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 43. ' David Rizzio/ continued Randolph in a later letter, ' is he that now worketh all, chief secretary to the Queen and only governor to her good man. The bruits here are wonderful, men's talk very strange, the hatred towards Lord Darnley and his house marvellous great, his pride intolerable, his words not to be borne, but where no man dare speak again. He spareth not also in token of his manhood to let blows fly where he knows they will be taken. When men have said all and thought what they can, they find no- thing but that God must send him a short end or themselves a miserable life. They do not now look for help from England. Whatsoever I speak is counted but wind. If her Majesty will not use force let her spend three or four thousand pounds. It is worth the expense of so much money to cut off the suspicion that men make of her Majesty that she never liked thing in her life better than to see this Queen so meanly matched. She is now so much altered from that which lately she was known to be, that who now beholdeth her doth not think her to be the same. Her Majesty is laid aside ; her wits not such as they were ; her beauty other than it was; her cheer and countenance changed into I wot not what a woman more to be pitied than any that ever I saw. The Lord Darnley has said that if there were war to-morrow between England and Scot- land, this Queen should find more friends in England than the Queen's Majesty's self/ 1 Randolph to Leicester ad Cecil, Juno 3 : Scotch MSS. Rolls House.
