She appeared much disappointed, and, after musing for some time, said, "so Leicester wants to be a king." Underbill, who was in the general's confidence, replied that the Dutch had indeed made the offer of the sovereignty of their country to her general, esteeming it a great honor, as they said, to h;'.ve a subject of her grace for their sovereign. No, replied the queen, it i,-; not tfie Dutch ; they hate kings and their divine rights; it is the proud Leicester, who yearns to be independent of his own sovereign, who moves this insolent proposal. Tell him from me, that he must learn to obey, before he is fit to govern. Tell him, added the queen, softening ^ her voice, that obedience may make him a king indeed. Imme- . diately after Captain Underbill had taken his public dispatches.

230 HISTORY OF THE

the queen sent for him to her priv^y closet, recalled her verbal message, delivered him a letter for Leicester, directed with her own hand, and a purse of one hundred crowns for himself; charging him to enclose the letter in lead, sink it in case of danger in his passage by sea, and to deliver it privately. On the receipt of this letter, Leicester was violently agitated, walked his chamber the whole of the ensuing night. Soon after, he resigned his command, and returned to England, animated by the brightest hopes of realizing the lofty suggestions of his ambition. With him Captain Underbill returned, and upon the decease of the Earl of Leicester, attached himself to the fortunes of the Earl of Essex, the unfortunate successor to Leicester in the queen's favor. He accompanied that gallant nobleman in his successful attack upon Cadiz, and shared his ill fortune in his fruitless expedition against Tyronne, the rebel chief of the revolted clans of Ireland ; and, returning with the earl into England, by his attachment to that imprudent nobleman, sallying into the streets of London in the petty insurrection, which cost Essex his head, he was obliged to seek safety in Holland, until the accession of King James, in one thousand six hundred and three, when he applied for pardon and leave to return to his native country.