WILLIAM, LORD BURGHLEY 67
any rate that he was obliged to retire from Court for some months, and that he wrote complaining that she " doth utter more heavy, hard, bitter and minatory speeches against me than against any other." l He begged to be allowed to plead his excuses in person, but when at last he obtained an audience, the Queen heaped him with indignities, calling him " traitor, false dissembler, and wicked wretch," so that he again withdrew, until he was finally induced by Sir Christopher Hatton to return.
If Elizabeth hoped to deceive anyone at home or abroad by such conduct, she failed. The character of Lord Burghley was too well known for it to be supposed that, in so important a matter, he had acted against her wishes. Sir Edward Stafford describes the effect of her behaviour on opinion at the French Court :
" I am very sorry to hear that her Majesty continues so offended with your lordship. She does herself and her service great harm. I assure you it is nuts to them here to hear it ; and yet for that respect she doth it, it rather doth harm than good, and particularly her evil countenance to you that makes the thing less believed than anything else ; for all that she can do cannot persuade them here that your lordship could ever be brought to do anything against her express will. Those that loved the Queen of Scots best will not be persuaded that you have advanced her days a minute more than the Queen willed, nor bear you any speech of evil will for it." 2
1 His letters to Elizabeth at this time may be found in Strype's Annals, II. 371 374.
2 Stafford to Burghley, April 4th, 1587 (5. P. France). Quoted by Froude, XII. 356, note.
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