The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-10-02

into the secret Of the birth OF child con.
fded to him, whatever his suspicious might
be- A weak point N the narrative IL de.
tected IN the fact that Sothern IL not alleged
to have been told, although many years
afterward he II said to have divulged the
secret to young Dudley. II Ii pronounced
equally beyond belief that boy born under
the conditions represented should have
been allowed to run about the world Of his
own FREQ will, Boosting or strongly limiting
that he was the child of the Queen, Wal
singham was too we'll served by his spies and
Leicester was too INSCRIPTIONS and wary to
have allowed such ayouth to slip through
their fingers with his dangerous tittle-tattle
when ono, they had him safe in the hands
OF fluid at Greenwich. Neither would the
French Ambassador, Castelnau, have given a
passport to mysterious stranger, unknown
and unintroduced to him, much less enter
tain him at supper. On his own showing,
too. Dudley must have been blind to his
own interests to have left clandestinely,
ard without apparent reason, a father who
had received him with tears OF tenderness
Gan unusual demonstration for Leicester);
to go wandering about the Continent pick
I hIs uP PIC iOuo iiNuB ny u
country and the faith from which alone he
had anything to expect. and consorting
with the avowed enemies Of his allege led
father and mother. who, he must have
known. might make or mar him. The
Judgment on the matter finally reached by
Sir Francis Engle1eld, an astute old states
man, versed In the crooked political craft Of
the day. is accepted by Mr.. Hume as the cor
rect one, namely. that Arthur Dudley was
one OF the army Of spies, most Of them faith
less to both sides, who had been carefully
tutored in his plausible tale in order that
he might better gain access to great person
ages and save himself from summary ex-
ecution in case he was caught. as, indeed,
happened when he was apprehended on
his attempt to leave Spain. After weigh
ing all the circumstances, the author OF
this book is convinced that Arthur Dud-
ley's story was false. II this be, as he
contends. the correct view to take OF a
narrative replete with the most detailed
and circumstantial allegations ever made
OF Elizabeth's having borne a child. 1t fol-
lows that the vague and utterly unsup-
ported rumor OF a son OF the Queen having
been seen in Venice, and dozen other hay
reports to a similar effect, may be reegated
to the limbo that awaits slanderous lies.
".
Mr.. Hume odds that no one can look at
the best portraits OF Elizabeth without
recognizing that she was not a sensual
woman. The lean, austere face, the tight
thin lips. the pointed, delicate chin. the cold
dull eyes tell OF character the very OPP
posite of lascivious. Every feature OF her
countenance and every act Of her life bears
witness that here was a woman whose per-
sonal vanity and love OF dominion con-
quered and crushed every other feeling in
her nature. She herself worshipped the
beauty of her figure. and she yearned that
others, and especially the men that took
her fancy. should share in her alteration
That such men, having been vouchsafed
the inestimable boon Of gazing upon and
approaching ineffable charms such as hers,
should dare to waver in their worship of
them and marry women Of the common
mould was to her not unfaithfulness alone,
but impiety Even in her old age this
curious craze for masculine homage pos
sessed her. When she received the grave
French Ambassador De Naisse, in Decem-
Der, 1907, though she was then nearly 85
years Of age, she was attired in robe which
was open down the front like dressing
gown, exposing a soft lawn chemise. also
open. While speaking to him she would
throw up her chin, and with both hands cast
open the collars of her dress, as il the heat
oppressed her. According to De Maisse,
she carried exposure to a most indecent ex-
tent II this was the case when she was re-
ceiving an elderly ambassador at a time
when she herself was an old woman, i; may
he imagined to what lengths her imperious
fury for male admiration might have led her
in her comparative youth and with u man
who had taken her fancy. MIR. Hume points
out that the indulgence of such a tendency,
necessarily in private, would compromise
her in appearance almost as much as if all
the evil alleged against her had been true.
1t il, at the same time, somewhat difficult
to reconcile the Queens solemn and almost
blasphemous protestations of physical
purity with a passage in letter written to
Christopher Hatton, her second favorite,
by his friend Dyer, for the purpose of dis
suading him from approaching the Queen
for her fckleness
The passage runs: For though in the
beginning, when her Majesty sought you
\afterher good manner) she did bear with
rugged dealing Of yours, until she had what
she fancied, yet now, after safety and full
ness. it will rather hurt than help you
Hatton followed his friends advice and
prospered splendidly until death overlook
him. On the other hand Hatton's own
letters to Elizabeth, which have been pre-
served, convey different impression from
that which might lie made by Dyer's words
lust quoted. Mr.. Hume says that in
Hattons lovelorn whimperings there is
never the unrnistakable ring of the sue
cessful wooer He Ia always the pursuer,
languishing for the bliss which is forever
denied him. and yearns but for glimpse
again of the divine beauty Of which he is
enamored. Neither in Hattons rawlings
nor in those Of Alencon, Sinner and Raleigh,
also considered in the book before us, is
the erotic admiration, which is Expressed
SO hotly accompanied by the confidential
complacency that unconsciously marks
the manifestations of a lover who has tri-
UNI phed over a woman.
In the famous letter addressed to Eliza
beth by Mary Stuart, In which all the SIAN
ders current at the Court were concentrated,
there is vitriolic insinuation that the
English Queen was mot like other women"
which has usually been interpreted to mean