My Lord Willoughby was one of the Queen’s first swordsmen; he was of the
ancient extract of the Bartewes, but more ennobled by his mother, who was
Duchess of Suffolk. He was a great master of the art _military_, and was
sent general into France, and commanded the second army of five the Queen
had sent thither, in aid of the French. I have heard it spoken that, had
he not slighted the Court, but applied himself to the Queen, he might
have enjoyed a plentiful portion of her grace; and it was his saying, and
it did him no good, that he was none of the _reptilia_, intimating that
he could not creep on the ground, and that the Court was not his element;
for, indeed, as he was a great soldier, so he was of a suitable
magnanimity, and could not brook the obsequiousness and assiduity of the
Court; and as he was then somewhat descending from youth, happily he had
an _animam revertendi_, or a desire to make a safe retreat.