46 THE CECILS
attitude to his colleagues, with whom he still continued to work loyally. " I am in quietness of mind," he writes to a friend, " as feeling the nearness and readiness of God's favour to assist me with His grace, to have a disposition to serve Him before the world : and therein have I lately proved His mere goodness to preserve me from some clouds or mists, in the midst whereof I trust mine honest actions are proved to have been lightsome and clear. And to make this rule more proper, I find the Queen's Majesty, my gracious lady, without change of her old good meaning towards me, and so I trust by God's goodness to observe a continuance." He adds that " all my lords " professed to bear him as much goodwill as ever. This is one of the most remarkable testi- monies to Cecil's character, that, however much his opponents may have fought against him in public, they all seem to have recognised his intrinsic goodness and honesty of purpose. The Duke of Norfolk, shortly before his execution, wrote to the Queen, asking that Burghley might act as a guardian to his " poor orphans," and again two days later (January 23rd, 1572) expressed his " comfort at hearing of the Queen's intended goodness towards his poor unfortunate brats and that she has christened them with such an adopted father as Lord Burghley." : Another of the conspirators, Lord Pembroke, made Cecil one of his executors, and even Mary herself, though she always looked on him as her chief
i Hatfield MSS., II.^.
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