say that if Philip Sidney had desired her for his wife, he had only
to ask for her and have her. Her father, when dying, had desired--
as any father might--that his daughter might become the wife of
Philip Sidney. But this is not the place for a discussion of
Astrophel and Stella sonnets.

In 1585 Sidney was planning to join Drake it sea in attack on Spain
in the West Indies. He was stayed by the Queen. But when Elizabeth
declared war on behalf of the Reformed Faith, and sent Leicester
with an expedition to the Netherlands, Sir Philip Sidney went out,
in November, 1585, as Governor of Flushing. His wife joined him
there. He fretted at inaction, and made the value of his counsels
so distinct that his uncle Leicester said after his death that he
began by "despising his youth for a counsellor, not without bearing
a hand over him as a forward young man. Notwithstanding, in a short
time he saw the sun so risen above his horizon that both he and all
his stars were glad to fetch light from him." In May, 1586, Sir
Philip Sidney received news of the death of his father. In August
his mother died. In September he joined in the investment of
Zutphen. On the 22nd of September his thigh-bone was shattered by a
musket ball from the trenches. His horse took fright and galloped
back, but the wounded man held to his seat. He was then carried to
his uncle, asked for water, and when it was given, saw a dying
soldier carried past, who eyed it greedily. At once he gave the
water to the soldier, saying, "Thy necessity is yet greater than
mine." Sidney lived on, patient in suffering, until the 17th of
October. When he was speechless before death, one who stood by
asked Philip Sidney for a sign of his continued trust in God. He
folded his hands as in prayer over his breast, and so they were
become fixed and chill, when the watchers placed them by his side;