"hearing, by a bare report only, of the "death of the late Queen, and not of our 66 care and diligence in the establishment "of your Majesty's right here, in such manner as is above specified, may con"ceive doubts of other nature than (God "be thanked) there is cause you should; " which we would have clearly prevented, "if he had borne so much respect to us, as "to have stayed for a common report of 66 our proceedings, and had not thought it "better to anticipate the same: for we "would have been loth that any person of 66 quality should have gone from hence, "who should not, with the report of her "death, have been able to declare the first "effect of our assured loyalties." This letter is signed first by the Lord Mayor, and then by three-and-thirty lords and gentlemen, members of the council, amongst whom is George, Lord Hunsdon, elder brother of our Earl of Monmouth, who, perhaps, would not have signed so harsh and public a representation against his own brother, had not that brother made use of him as a means to escape from Rich mond, when the palace gates were shut and strictly guarded, the Queen being just expired. The consequences of that escape, and how little Sir Robert Cary remembered the positive manner in which Lord Hunsdon had answered for him, will be seen in the Memoirs. To say the truth, our author is not to be entirely excused in giving up, and in a manner betraying his bail. If such an act admits of any attenuation, Sir Robert Cary may claim it from the private information given him by Lord Banbury, who was one of the council, and knew of a secret intention to send another person into Scotland, and to detain Sir Robert Cary at least till that messenger was arrived at Edinburgh. The intrigues of the court in this important season appear various and bustling; full of persons betraying and betrayed. Every courtier, no doubt, wished for wings; Sir Robert Cary wisely got upon a horse. All those who signed the letter, among whom Lord Banbury by the name of William Knolles was one, must, from the tenor of what they had given under their hands, remain the avowed enemies of our author. The weight and power of such a number of great men, had so irresistible an influence over King James, that, forgetting all his promises, he dismissed Sir Robert Cary from the post of gentleman of the bedchamber; an act which is bitterly and justly complained of in these Memoirs. * One circumstance in the foregoing letter must be taken notice of. Our author is there called Sir Robert Cary, but when or upon what occasion he was knighted, does * Notwithstanding the sympathetic feeling of the noble biographer, those who consider that Cary's sole merit towards James consisted in a raven-like hovering around his dying kinswoman and benefactress, in order to gratify her successor with the earliest notice of her death, will not be greatly disposed to lament the disappointment of his ambition. E. not, I believe, appear from any printed history, nor from any part of his Memoirs except one, where, speaking of the Earl of Essex, he says, "He (Lord Essex) made "all the haste he could to Dieppe. I met "him there. As soon as he saw me, he "drew his rapier, and came running to me, " and laid it on my shoulder." It is evident, according to Camden, that Queen Elizabeth gave her generals a power of conferring knighthood upon whom they thought proper. * That author gives us more instances of it than one. The first, as I remember, is in the year 1570, when Thomas Ratcliffe, Earl of Sussex, was sent, at the head of some forces, to quell a rebellion upon the borders of Scotland. "Sus * Our author does not seem to have remembered, that the power of making knights was originally competent to every one, when he himself attained that order; and it was only the difficulty of sustaining the dignity, which gradually limited the privilege of conferring it first to generals, and at length to sovereign princes exclusively. E. "sex," says Mr Camden,* " being now "returned, knighted Edward Hastings, "Francis Russel, Valentine Brown, Wil"liam Hilton, Robert Stapleton, Henry Curwen, and Simon Musgrave, for their valour; and he himself afterwards, for "his approved wisdom and virtue, was ad"mitted of the Queen's privy council." 66 66 Queen Elizabeth gave the same power of making knights to her admirals. Accordingly, Camden tells us, that, in the year 1588, after the third sea-fight with the Spanish armada, "The next day the lord"admiral knighted the Lord Thomas "Howard, the Lord Sheffield, Roger Town"send, John Hawkins, and Martin Forbisfor their valour." 66 ter, A third example is given by the same * See Camden's History of Queen Elizabeth, book ii, page 149. + See Idem, book iii. page 414. Charles, Lord Howard of Effingham. |