sake of herself, the country, and even on his (Leicester’s) account, as every one believed that he was the cause of her remaining single, and his life was in danger if he remained at Court. She again said that “if he were a prince she would marry him to-morrow.”[47] With the Emperor’s cool dilatoriness and Leicester’s constant efforts, the cause of the latter was distinctly in the ascendant during the spring of 1566. Norfolk and Sussex were too evidently biased by personal enmity towards the favourite to be good negotiators for his rival, whilst Cecil and Bacon on the one hand, and Guzman on the other, did not care to be hasty in concluding the Archduke’s marriage until the religious conditions were clearly understood. It was finally determined that an envoy should be sent to the Emperor with the Queen’s reply to the objections he had raised, and at first Francis Bertie, the Duchess of Suffolk’s husband, was chosen. He was, however, a strong Protestant, and a friend of Leicester’s, and the Spanish ambassador privately urged Cecil to have the appointment cancelled. This was done, and the Queen’s kinsman, Sir Thomas Sackville, was then selected. When this appointment was made Leicester was, in one of his periodical sulking fits, driven away by the remonstrances of Cecil and Sussex and by the Queen’s flirting with the Earl of Ormond. The French ambassador, de Foix, says that Elizabeth had positively promised to marry the favourite during the winter, and at Christmas had begged him to wait till Candlemas, in order that Catharine de Medici’s approval might be sent. Leicester found that his best weapon was to deprive the Queen of his presence, as she generally came round in a few days so far as to promise him anything to bring him back. Between her promises and their fulfilment, however, there was usually a great gap, and Leicester felt that he was powerless to get beyond a certain point. His influence was always strong enough to prevent the success of another suitor, but not powerful enough to ensure his own. His sulking bouts, indeed, were often feigned, in concert with the Queen, to appease Cecil, or to prevent the entire cessation of the Archduke’s negotiations. This probably was the case when the appointment of Bertie as ambassador to the Emperor had aroused suspicion, as, after an apparent tiff with the Queen, Leicester went to Pembroke House, where the Queen, disguised, joined him in a friendly dinner before he left the Court.[48] On the representations of Cecil she consented to appoint Sackville instead of Bertie; but she had quietly agreed with Leicester beforehand that her complaisance should not go beyond appearance, and before the favourite returned to Court Sackville’s departure had been indefinitely postponed. During Leicester’s absence from Court Cecil and Sussex were more hopeful about the Archduke, although as we now see with very little reason. The Austrians were lethargic, the Spaniards