8. The queen, while staying at Hampton Court, felt herself one day faint and unwell. Never suspecting that small-pox was the cause, she went out for a ride, caught cold, and in a few hours was in a high fever. The eruption was checked. She grew rapidly and alarmingly worse. _The thin cord that held England together was threatening to snap_. Should the queen die no ray of hope or light could be seen for England. In the evening she sank into a stupor without speech; and with blank faces, in the ante-chamber of the room where she was believed to be dying, the Council sat into the night to consider the thorny question of the succession to the throne. At midnight the fever cooled, the skin grew moist, the spots began to appear. By the morning the eruption had come out--and the danger was over. 9. Among the queenly qualities of Elizabeth was her unfailing insight into men's character. She knew worthy men when she saw them, and showed unerring judgment in the selection of her ministers and agents. She made the interests of the kingdom her chief concern, and those who shared her counsels were of the same spirit. Her chief minister was William Cecil, and for forty years he served the queen with rare ability and loyalty. He had much to endure from the shifty and uncertain ways of his royal mistress, but he bore all with wonderful patience, and was ever at her elbow with his sage advice when the right moment had come. Elizabeth knew that she could trust him, and was never offended when he plainly showed that he disliked her crooked policy. Blunt of speech herself, she required her ministers to be plain-spoken; always ready to listen to their counsel, though not always ready to follow their advice. 10. Her great minister Elizabeth created Lord Burleigh, and gave him great wealth and power, which he always used in the interests of his country. No other minister has directed the affairs of state for so long a period, or ever directed them more wisely. Lord Burleigh, therefore, deserves a place of high honour among the makers of England. The family of Cecil has often since taken an active part in the government of the kingdom, a conspicuous example of which we have seen in the case of Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury, who has held the office of Prime Minister both in the last reign and the present.