This page has been validated.


THE LOVE OF SPECTACLES
237

enter the lists, and there is tilting and sword-play for some hours; after which a boy carrying an olive branch approaches the Queen to acknowledge on the part of Desire their mistake in not seeing that she was quite out of their sphere, and that the attack on the Castle of Beauty had proved an utter failure. The Queen then rose and thanked them for their entertainment and gave them praise, "which they esteemed so well, and thought themselves awarded according to their wishes; and so they departed, each one in order, according to the first coming in. And thus ceased these courtly triumphs."


On October 7, 1586, the proudest, finest specimen of an Elizabethan gentleman died at the post of duty on Zutphen field. "He was the great glory of his family," says Camden, "the great hope of mankind, the most lively pattern of virtue, and the darling of the learned world."

Sir Philip Sidney was sent by her majesty to the Low Countries where he was made Lieutenant of Flushing, at which place he arrived in the latter part of 1585. He was colonel of the Dutch regiment of Flushing, and captain of 200 English foot and 100 horse. "In September," says the curious old roll described by Thorpe, "at the relieving of Zutphen he charged the enemy thrice in