But At His Return, And Upon Some Account Sent Home Before, Touching
The State Of That Kingdom, The Queen Poured
Out assiduous
testimonies of her grace towards him, till, by his retreat to his
Castle of Cary, which he was
Then building, and out of a desire to
be in command at home as he had been abroad, together with the
hatred and practice of Hatton, then in high favour, whom he had, not
long before, bitterly taunted for his dancing, he was accused for
high treason, and for high words, and a forged letter, and
condemned; though the Queen, on the news of his condemnation, swore,
by her wonted oath, that the jury were all knaves: and they
delivered it with assurance that, on his return to the town after
his trial, he said, with oaths and with fury, to the Lieutenant, Sir
Owen Hopton, "What! will the Queen suffer her brother to be offered
up as a sacrifice to the envy of my flattering adversaries?" Which
being made known to the Queen, and somewhat enforced, she refused to
sign it, and swore he should not die, for he was an honest and
faithful man. And surely, though not altogether to set our rest and
faith upon tradition and old reports, as that Sir Thomas Perrot, his
father, was a gentleman of the Privy Chamber, and in the Court
married to a lady of great honour, which are presumptions in some
implications; but, if we go a little further and compare his
pictures, his qualities, gesture, and voice, with that of the King,
which memory retains yet amongst us, they will plead strongly that
he was a surreptitious child of the blood royal.
Certain it is that he lived not long in the Tower; and that after
his decease, Sir Thomas Perrot, his son, then of no mean esteem with
the Queen, having before married my Lord of Essex's sister, since
Countess of Northumberland, had restitution of his land; though
after his death also (which immediately followed) the Crown resumed
the estate, and took advantage of the former attainder; and, to say
the truth, the priest's forged letter was, at his arraignment,
thought but as a fiction of envy, and was soon after exploded by the
priest's own confession. But that which most exasperated the Queen
and gave advantage to his enemies was, as Sir Walter Raleigh takes
into observation, words of disdain, for the Queen, by sharp and
reprehensive letters, had nettled him; and thereupon, sending others
of approbation, commending his service, and intimating an invasion
from Spain; which was no sooner proposed but he said publicly, in
the great chamber at Dublin: - "Lo, now she is ready to ** herself
for fear of the Spaniards: I am again one of her white boys," which
are subject to a various construction, and tended to some
disreputation of his Sovereign, and such as may serve for
instruction to persons in place of honour and command, to beware of
the violences of Nature, and especially the exorbitance of the
tongue.
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