my importunity prevailed, and found it to be the Earl of Leicester’s picture.” Melvil tried to get the picture to carry to Scotland, as the Queen had, as he says, the original; but Elizabeth would not part with the counterfeit, although she pretended to be willing to give Dudley himself to “her dear sister.” Melvil gives a very amusing account of the manner in which the Queen pressed him to give his opinion as to the respective perfections of his mistress and herself. She dressed herself in every possible style for his delectation, showed off her dancing, her music (with a fair amount of coyness), her knowledge of languages. “Her hair,” he says, “was more reddish than yellow, curled, in appearance, naturally. She desired to know whether my Queen’s hair or hers was the best.” He rather fenced so delicate a question, but the Queen insisted upon an answer, and she was told that “she was the fairest Queen in England, and mine the fairest Queen in Scotland.” But still she was not satisfied, and after much pressure Melvil was fain to answer that “she was the whiter of the two, but that Mary was very lovely.” Shortly before Melvil’s visit a new Spanish ambassador, Guzman de Silva, had arrived in London, and Dudley lost not a day in trying upon him the tactics that had failed with Quadra. A Catholic friend of his was sent to Guzman to assure him that, if he would exert his influence to ruin Cecil with the Queen, Dudley would place himself under the orders of Philip, and at a second interview with the ambassador the same person told him “that Robert still looks to marry the Queen, and thinks that religious questions will be settled thereby. Robert, he says, has an understanding with the Pope on the matter, and a person in Rome to represent him. This he told me in strict secrecy, and greatly praises Robert’s good intentions with regard to religion and the marriage, but with equivocal assurances as to what measures would be adopted.” Needless to say that the former ambassador’s experience was not lost upon his successor, and Dudley was henceforward looked at askance by the Spanish party. The Queen herself next tried her blandishments on the new envoy. He was invited to a grand masque represented in the palace, and sat next to her Majesty, who interpreted the play to him. Of course it was all about love, which gave an opportunity for the Queen to ask the Spaniard whether Don Carlos had grown manly. She was told that he had, and then, sighing sentimentally, she said: “Ah me! every one disdains me! I hear he is to be married to the Queen of Scots.” The ambassador assured her that it was not true --Carlos had been too ill of late for any thought of his marriage, but still people would gossip about great people. “That is very true,” said the Queen. “Why, they even said in London the other day that the King was sending an ambassador to treat of the marriage of the prince (Don Carlos) with _me_!” The feasting and entertainment lasted till