And The Truth Is, She Took Him For A Kind Of Oracle, Which Nettled Them All; Yea, Those That He Relied On Began To Take This His Sudden Favour For An Alarm And To Be Sensible Of Their Own Supplantation, And To Project His, Which Made Him Shortly After Sing -

"Fortune, my foe, why dost thou frown?"

So that, finding his favour declining, and falling into a recess, he undertook a new peregrination, to leave that TERRA INFIRMA {62} of the court for that of the waves, and by declining himself, and by absence to expel his and the passion of his enemies; which, in court, was a strange device of recovery, but that he then knew there was some ill office done him; yet he durst not attempt to mend it, otherwise than by going aside thereby to teach envy a new way of forgetfulness, and not so much as think of him. Howsoever, he had it always in mind never to forget himself; and his device took so well that, in his return, he came in as rams do, by going backward with the greater strength, and so continued to the last, great in her favour, and captain of her guard: where I must leave him, but with this observation, though he gained much at the court, he took it not out of the Exchequer, or merely out of the Queen's purse, but by his wit, and by the help of the prerogative; for the Queen was never profuse in delivering out of her treasure, but paid most and many of her servants, part in money, and the rest with grace; which, as the case stood, was then taken for good payment, leaving the arrears of recompense due for their merit, to her great successor, {63} who paid them all with advantage. {64}

GREVILLE.

Sir Foulke Greville, since Lord Brooke, had no mean place in her favour, neither did he hold it for any short time, or term; for, if I be not deceived, he had the longest lease, the smoothest time without rubs of any of her favourites; he came to the court in his youth and prime, as that is the time, or never: he was a brave gentleman, and hopefully descended from Willoughby, Lord Brooke, and admiral to Henry the Seventh; neither illiterate, for he was, as he would often profess, a friend to Sir Philip Sidney, and there are now extant some fragments of his pen, and of the times, which do interest him in the muses, and which show in him the Queen's election had ever a noble conduct, and it motions more of virtue and judgment than of fancy.

I find that he neither sought for nor obtained any great place or preferment in court, during all his time of attendance: neither did he need it, for he came thither backed with a plentiful fortune, which, as himself was wont to say, was then better held together by a single life, wherein he lived and died a constant courtier of the ladies.

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