CHAPTER XIV

THE EARL OF ESSEX Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, arrived in England a couple of days after Lord Rochester's excursion to Audley End, and dutifully presented himself at Whitehall. His first visit was to his father-in-law, whose letters had accelerated his return. Any hopes which Lord Suffolk might have founded upon the personality of Essex to accomplish the conquest of Frances, and efface from her mind all thought of the brilliant fellow with whose name her own had been so scandalously coupled, were extinguished by…