EDWARD, VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON 113
goodwill that ever I had in my power to bestow, which I have done with confidence and affection." 1 Cecil's command was to be that of Lord Marshal of the Army on board the fleet and Deputy to Buckingham, and this appointment he gratefully accepted, at once setting about the necessary preparations. But the occasion was not to pass without a display of his jealous and quarrelsome temper. At the same time that Buckingham had written to him, he had also informed Sir Horace Vere that the States-General could not dispense with his services, but that the King was pleased to create him a Baron. 2 One would have supposed that Cecil, having been chosen for so high a command, though junior to Vere, would have been pleased that his old comrade-in-arms should also be honoured ; yet on receipt of the news, he wrote to Buckingham as follows :
" The occasion of my boldness in presenting your Excellency with these lines, is for that, contrary to my expectation, I hear that there is a commission a drawing to make Sir Horace Vere a Baron of England. It is strange to me at this time to hear it, for that I know not what worth there is more in him, than in those that are equal in profession and before him in birth. If your Excellency have made choice of me to be your second in this journey of so much charge and expectation, and to make me less than I was, what courage shall I have to do you service ? or what honour will redound to your Excellency ? But although I write it, yet I cannot believe it, for that I know you of that judgment and nobleness that you will rather add to your faithful servants,
1 Dalton, II. 94. a Ibid., II. 95- C. I
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