adventure shows that there are frequent transitions from one passion to another and that as love often changes to hate, so hate, giving place sometimes to pity, brings the mind back again into its first state.” Sir Dudley Carleton, who is made the author of this story, was a man who deserved the character that is given of him and could not but be well informed of what had passed at court. The Countess of Nottingham was the daughter of the Lord Viscount Hunsdon, related to the Queen and also, by his mother, to the Earl of Essex. The story of the ring and the relations of the Queen’s passion for the Earl of Essex were long regarded by many writers as romantic circumstances. But these facts are now more generally believed. Hume, Birch and other judicious historians give credit to them. Dr. Birch has confirmed Maurice’s account by the following narrative, which was often related by the Lady Elizabeth Spelman, a descendant of Sir Robert Cary, Earl of Monmouth, whose acquaintance with the most secret transactions of Queen Elizabeth’s court is well known:[272] “When Catharine, Countess of Nottingham, wife of the Lord High Admiral and sister of the Earl of Monmouth, was dying, (as she did, according to his Lordship’s own account, about a fortnight before the Queen,) she sent to her majesty, to desire that she might see her in order to reveal something to her majesty, without the discovery of which she could not die in peace. Upon the Queen’s coming, Lady Nottingham told her that, while the Earl of Essex lay under sentence of death, he was desirous of asking her majesty’s mercy, in the manner prescribed by herself, during the height of his favor: the Queen having given him a ring which, being sent to her as a token of his distress, might entitle him to her protection. But the Earl, jealous of those about him and not caring to trust any one with it, as he was looking out of the window one morning, saw a boy, with whose appearance he was pleased, and, engaging him, by money and promises, directed him to carry the ring, which he took from his finger and threw down, to Lady Scroope, a sister of the Countess of Nottingham and a friend of his lordship, who attended upon the Queen and to beg of her that she would present it to her majesty. The boy, by mistake, carried it to Lady Nottingham, who showed it to her husband, the Admiral, an enemy of Lord Essex, in order to take his advice. The Admiral forbid her to carry it or return any answer to the message; but insisted upon her keeping the ring. “The Countess of Nottingham having made the discovery, begged the Queen’s forgiveness, but her majesty answered, ‘God may forgive you, but I never can;’ and left the room with great emotion. Her mind was so struck with this story that she never went to bed, nor took any subsistence, from that instant: for Camden is of opinion that her chief reason for suffering the Earl to be executed was his supposed obstinancy in not applying to her for mercy.”