56 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [011.41. and, as she supposed, would be a shelter to herself, Eliza- beth meanwhile felt herself able to dismiss the Parlia- ment and to answer the addresses of the Houses before they separated. On Saturday the loth of April she went down to the Lords to give her assent to the Acts of the session. Sir Thomas Williams paid her the usual compliments, com- paring her to the great queens of fable or history to ' Palestina,' who reigned before the deluge, to Ceres who followed her, and other benefactresses of mankind real or imaginary ; without entering again upon painful sub- jects, he contented himself with expressing a wish at the close of his speech to see her happily married. A formal answer of a corresponding kind was read by Bacon and then Elizabeth rose and in her own style spoke as follows : ' Since there can be no duer debt than prince's word, to keep that unspotted, for my part, as one that would be loth that the self thing that keeps the merchant's credit from craze, should be the cause that prince's speech should merit blame, and so their honour quail : an an- swer therefore I will make, and this it is : ' The two petitions that you presented me, in many words expressed, contained these two things in sum as of your cares the greatest my marriage and my success- or of which two, the last I think is best to be touched ; and of the other a silent thought may serve ; for I had thought it had been so desired as none other tree's blossoms should have been minded ere hope of my fruit had been denied you. But to the last, think not that
