218 QUEEN ELIZABETH CHAP

would now be called Home Rule. A few days later, on
receipt of an angry letter from the Queen forbidding
him to grant any terms without her permission, he
deserted his post and hurried to England. The first
notice Elizabeth received of this astounding piece of
insubordination was his still more astounding incur-
sion into her bedroom, all muddy from his ride, before
she was completely dressed (September 28, 1599).

Elizabeth seems to have been so much taken aback
by the Earl's unparalleled presumption, that she did
not blaze out as might have been expected. She gave
him audience an hour or two later, and heard what he
had to say. Probably he adopted an injured tone as
usual, and inveighed against " that knave Ealeigh"
and " that sycophant Cobham." But his insubordina-
tion had been gross, and no talking could make it
anything else. It was more dangerous than Leicester's
disobedience in 1586, because it came from a vastly
more dangerous person. The same afternoon the
Queen referred the matter to the Council. Essex was
put under arrest, and never saw her again. The more
she reflected, the more indignant and alarmed she
became. " By God's son," she said to Harington, " I
am no Queen; this man is above me." After a delay
of nine months, occasioned by his illness, the fallen
favourite was brought before a special Commission on
the charge of contempt and disobedience, and sentenced
to be suspended from his offices and confined to his
house during the Queen's pleasure (June 1600). In
a few weeks he was released from arrest, but he could
not obtain permission to appear at. court, though he
implored it in most abject letters.