She remains the same as I have always thought her--brilliant, cruel, ruthless, and perfectly unfeeling." Although Froude's admiration for Elizabeth steadily diminished with the progress of his researches, even students of his History will be surprised by such a verdict as this: "I am slowly drawing to the end of my long journey through the Records.

By far the largest part of Burghley's papers is here [in the Record Office], and not at Hatfield.

The private letters which passed between him and Walsingham about Elizabeth have destroyed finally the prejudice that still clung to me that, notwithstanding her many faults, she was a woman of ability.

Evidently in their opinion she had no ability at all worth calling by the name." Two or three extracts will complete the part of this correspondence which deals with the composition of the History.

"I have been incessantly busy in the Record Office since my return to London.