solving. Let us look round, then, and see into what sort of a
country, into what sort of a world, the young adventurer is going
forth, at seventeen years of age, to seek his fortune.

Born in 1552, his young life has sprung up and grown with the young
life of England. The earliest fact, perhaps, which he can recollect
is the flash of joy on every face which proclaims that Mary Tudor is
dead, and Elizabeth reigns at last. As he grows, the young man sees
all the hope and adoration of the English people centre in that
wondrous maid, and his own centre in her likewise. He had been base
had he been otherwise. She comes to the throne with such a prestige
as never sovereign came since the days when Isaiah sang his paean
over young Hezekiah's accession. Young, learned, witty, beautiful
(as with such a father and mother she could not help being), with an
expression of countenance remarkable (I speak of those early days)
rather for its tenderness and intellectual depth than its strength,
she comes forward as the champion of the Reformed Faith, the
interpretress of the will and conscience of the people of England--
herself persecuted all but to the death, and purified by affliction,
like gold tried in the fire. She gathers round her, one by one,
young men of promise, and trains them herself to their work. And
they fulfil it, and serve her, and grow gray-headed in her service,
working as faithfully, as righteously, as patriotically, as men ever
worked on earth. They are her 'favourites'; because they are men who
deserve favour; men who count not their own lives dear to themselves
for the sake of the queen and of that commonweal which their hearts
and reasons tell them is one with her. They are still men, though;
and some of them have their grudgings and envyings against each
other: she keeps the balance even between them, on the whole,
skilfully, gently, justly, in spite of weaknesses and prejudices,