This sugges

tress between her head and her shoulders." tion was acted upon, and combined with the terror, occasioned by the execution of Babington and his associates, drew from them sufficient admissions, to serve for evidence against their mistress.

The angry and excited state of feeling, to which Elizabeth's mind had been worked up, against her unfortunate kinswoman, may be plainly seen in the following letter, written by her to sir Amias Paulet, soon after the removal of the queen of Scots to the gloomy fortress of Fotheringaye. QUEEN ELIZABETH TO SIR AMIAS PAULET.

"Amias, my most faithful and careful servant, God reward thee treblefold for thy most troublesome charge so well discharged. If you knew, my Amias, how kindly, besides most dutifully, my grateful heart accepts and prizes your spotless endeavours and faultless actions, your wise orders and safe regard, performed in so dangerous and crafty a charge, it would ease your travails and rejoice your heart, in which I charge you place this most just thought, that I cannot balance in any weight of my judgment the value that I prize you at, and suppose no treasures to countervail such a faith. If I reward not such deserts, let me lack when I have most need of you; if I acknowledge not such merit, non omnibus dictum.

"Let your wicked murderess (his prisoner, Mary queen of Scots) know how, with hearty sorrow, her vile deserts compel these orders, and bid her, from me, ask God forgiveness for her treacherous dealings towards the saviour of her life many a year, to the intolerable peril of my own, and yet, not contented with so many forgivenesses, must fault again so horribly, far passing woman's thought, much less a princess; instead of excusing whereof, not one can sorrow, it being so plainly confessed by the authors of my guiltless death.

"Let repentance take place, and let not the fiend possess her, so as her better part may not be lost, for which I pray with hands lifted up to Him, that may both save and spill.

"With my most loving adieu and prayer for thy long life, your most assured and loving sovereign, as thereby by good deserts induced."

The great point for which Burleigh, Leicester, Walsingham, and their colleagues, had been labouring for the last eighteen years, was, at length, accomplished. They had succeeded in persuading Elizabeth, that Mary Stuart, in her sternly-guarded prison, crippled with chronic and neuralgic maladies, surrounded by spies, and out of the reach of human aid, was so formidable to her person and government, that it was an imperative duty to herself and her Protestant subjects to put her to death. Having once

1 Letters from the Leigh Collection, quoted by Lingard.

* State Paper. MS. Collection relative to Mary queen of Scots, written in a beautiful and very legible hand.

brought their long irresolute mistress to this conclusion, all other difficulties became matters of minor importance to the master spirits, who ruled Elizabeth's council, since they had only to arrange a ceremonial process for taking away the life of their defenceless captive, in as plausible and formal a manner as might be compatible with the circumstances of the case.

After much deliberation, it was determined that Mary should be tried by a commission of peers and privy councillors, under the great seal; the fatal innovations1 which Henry VIII.'s despotic tyranny had made in the ancient laws of England on life and death, having rendered the crown arbitrary on that point.

The commissioners for the trial of Mary queen of Scots left London for Fotheringaye Castle, before the 8th of October, 1586; for, on that day, Davison dates a letter, written to Burleigh, by her majesty's command, containing various instructions. In this letter, Davison informs the absent premier, "that a Dutchman, newly arrived from Paris, who was familiar with the queen-mother's jeweller, had requested him to advise her majesty to beware of one, who will present a petition to her, on her way to chapel, or walking abroad." Davison goes on to request Burleigh to write to the queen, to pray her to be more circumspect of her person, and to avoid shewing herself in public, till the brunt of the business then in hand be overblown."

This mysterious hint of a new plot against the queen's life, was in conformity with the policy of the cabinet, which referred all attempts of the kind to the evil influence of the captive, Mary Stuart. In conclusion, Davison informs Burleigh and Walsingham, that he is

Namely, the practice of trying noble or royal victims, by a commission selected from the House of Lords, and such commoners as held great crown places, and were lords of the council. The members of such committees were called lords-triers, and the whole plan bore a respectable resemblance to the vital spring of English liberty-trial by jury; but most deceptively so, since the house of peers was, at the Tudor era, a very small body, whose interests and prejudices were intimately known to the government; therefore, only those prepared to go all lengths with it, were put into commission; neither was the victim allowed to protest against any enemy in the junta. This mode of extirpating persons of rank, obnoxious to the crown, first became notorious by the infamous trial of Anne Boleyn.

2 Sir Harris Nicolas' Life of Davison.

especially commanded by her majesty to signify to them both "how greatly she doth long to hear how her Spirit and her Moon do find themselves, after so foul and wearisome a journey." By the above pet names was the mighty Elizabeth accustomed, in moments of playfulness, to designate those grave and unbending statesmen, Burleigh and Walsingham; but playfulness at such a season was certainly not only in bad taste, but revolting to every feeling of humanity, when the object of that foul and weary journey, on which Elizabeth's Spirit and her Moon had departed, is considered.

The most repulsive feature, in the final proceedings against the hapless Mary, is the odious levity with which the leading actors in the tragedy demeaned themselves, while preparing to shed her blood, and, at the same time, appealing to the Scriptures in justification of the deed. L'Aubespine de Chasteauneuf, the French ambassador, demanded, in the name of his sovereign, that Mary might be allowed the assistance of counsel. Elizabeth returned an angry verbal answer by Hatton, that "she required not the advice or schooling of foreign powers to instruct her how she ought to act;" and added, "that she considered the Scottish queen unworthy of counsel."

What, it may be asked, was this but condemnation. before trial? and what result was to be expected from the trial of any person of whom a despotic sovereign had made such an assertion? Can any one read Elizabeth's letter to the commissioners, dated October 7th, in which she charges them to forbear passing sentence on the Scottish queen till they have returned into her presence, and made their report to herself," and doubt that the death of the royal captive was predetermined? It was not till the 11th, four days after the date of this letter, that they assembled at Fotheringaye for the business on which they had been deputed. On the 12th, they opened their court. Mary refused to acknowledge their authority, on which they delivered to her the following letter from their royal mistress:

QUEEN ELIZABETH TO MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. "You have, in various ways and manners, attempted to take my life, and to bring my kingdom to destruction by bloodshed. I have never proceeded

1 Nicolas' Life of Davison.

2 Harleian MSS. 290, f. 180.

so harshly against you; but have, on the contrary, protected and maintained you like myself. These treasons will be proved to you, and all made manifest.

"Yet it is my will that you answer the nobles and peers of the kingdom as if I were myself present. I, therefore, require, charge, and command, that you make answer, for I have been well informed of your arrogance.

"Act plainly, without reserve, and you will sooner be able to obtain favour of me. "ELIZABETH."

This letter, was addressed to Mary, (without the superscription of cousin or sister,) and as it may be supposed, from the well-known high spirit of that queen, had not the slightest effect in inducing her to reply to the commissioners. She told them, however, "that she had endeavoured to gain her liberty, and would continue to do so as long as she lived; but that she had never plotted against the life of their queen, nor had any connexion with Babington or the others, but to obtain her freedom; on which particulars, if Elizabeth chose to question her in person, she would declare the truth, but would reply to no inferior."

The details of this celebrated process, for trial it cannot be called, belong to the personal history of Mary Stuart,' rather than to the biography of Elizabeth. Suffice it therefore to say, that, after two days fruitless struggle to defend herself against the subtlety and oppression of men, who demeaned themselves like adverse lawyers pleading on the side of the crown rather than as conscientious judges, Mary demanded to be heard before the assembled parliament of England, or the queen and her council. The commissioners then adjourned the court, to meet, October 25th, at the Star Chamber, Westminster. On that day they reassembled, and pronounced sentence of death on the Scottish queen, pursuant to the statute of the 27th of Elizabeth, which had been framed for that very purpose.

The parliament met on the 29th, and, having considered the reports of the commissioners, united in petitioning queen Elizabeth that the sentence against the Scottish queen might be carried into execution. Elizabeth received the deputation from parliament, November 12th, in her presence-chamber at Richmond palace. Mr. Sergeant Puckering, the speaker, after enlarging on the offences of Mary against queen Elizabeth, recalled to her majesty

The personal memoir of Mary queen of Scots, by Agnes Strickland, will appear immediately after the completion of the Lives of the Queens of England.

the example of God's displeasure on Saul for sparing Agag, and on Ahab for preserving Benhadad; and, after preaching a political sermon, too tedious for recapitulation, from these irrelevant cases, he assured her, "that her compliance with the petition would be most acceptable to God, and that her people expected nothing less of her." Elizabeth made an elaborate and mystified harangue, in reply, of great length and verbosity. The following passages may serve as a sample of the style and substance of this celebrated speech :

“The bottomless graces and benefits, bestowed upon me by the Almighty, are and have been such, that I must not only acknowledge them, but admire them, accounting them miracles (as well) as benefits.

"And now, albeit I find my life hath been full dangerously sought, and death contrived by such as no desert procured, yet I am therein so clear from malice, (which hath the property to make men glad at the falls and faults of their foes, and make them seem to do for other causes, when rancour is the ground,) as I protest it is and hath been my grievous thought, that one, not different in sex, of like estate, and my near kin, should fall in so great a crime. Yea, I had so little purpose to pursue her with any colour of malice, that it is not unknown to some of my lords here (for now I will play the blab), I secretly wrote her a letter on the discovery of sundry treasons, that if she would confess them, and privately acknowledge them by her letters to myself, she never need be called for them in so public question. Neither did I it of mind to circumvent her; for I knew as much as she could confess, And if even yet, now that the matter is made but too apparent, I thought she truly would repent, (as, perhaps, she would easily appear in outward show to do,) and that, on her account, no one would take the matter upon them; or, if we were but as two milkmaids, with our pails on our arms, or if there were no more dependences upon us, but mine own life only, in danger, and not the whole estate of your religion, (I protest, whereon you may believe me, for though I have many vices, I hope I have not accustomed my tongue to be an instrument of untruth,) I would most willingly pardon and remit this offence."1

Lest, however, any one should be deceived, by all this parade of mercy and Christian charity, into the notion that it was her sincere wish to save her unfortunate kinswoman, she concluded her speech by informing them, "that she had just received information of another plot, in which the conspirators had bound themselves, under the penalty of death, to take away her life within the month," thus exciting a more deadly flame of loyal indignation in their bosoms against the powerless object of their fury, who was pointed at as the inciter of all attempts against the person of Elizabeth.

The parliament responded, in the tone that was desired,

1 Hollinshed, 1582: vol. ii.