earl of Sussex, whose generous nature was touched with manly compassion, bent his knee before her, and told her she should have liberty to write her mind," and swore, "as he was a true man, he would himself deliver it to the queen, whatsoever came of it, and bring her back the answer."

Elizabeth then addressed, with the earnest eloquence of despair, the following moving letter to her royal sister, taking good care not to bring it to a conclusion till the tide had ebbed so far as to render it impossible to shoot the bridge with a barge that turn.

"THE LADY ELIZABETH TO THE QUEEN.'

"If any ever did try this old saying, 'that a king's word was more than another man's oath,' I must humbly beseech your majesty to verify it in me, and to remember your last promise and my last demand-that I be not condemned without answer and due proof-which it seems that I now am: for without cause proved, I am by your council from you commanded, to go to the Tower, a place more wanted for a false traitor, than a true subject. Which though I know I deserve it not, yet in the face of all this realm it appears proved. I pray to God I may die the shamefullest death that any ever died, if I may mean any such thing; and to this present hour I protest before God (who shall judge my truth whatsoever malice shall devise) that I never practised, counselled, nor consented to anything that might be prejudicial to your person any way, or dangerous to the state by any means. And therefore I humbly beseech your majesty to let me answer afore yourself, and not suffer me to trust to your councillorsyea, and that afore I go to the Tower - if it be possible if not, before I be further condemned. Howbeit, I trust assuredly your highness will give me leave to do it afore I go, that thus shamefully I may not be cried out on, as I now shall be-yea, and that without cause!

"Let conscience move your highness to pardon this my boldness, which innocency procures me to do, together with hope of your natural kindness, which I trust will not see mne cast away without desert, which what it (her desert) is I would desire no more of God, but that you truly knew-but which thing I think and believe, you shall never by report know, unless by yourself you hear. I have heard of many in my time cast away, for want of coming to the presence of their prince; and in late days I heard my lord of Somerset say, that if his brother had been suffered to speak with him, he had never suffered, but persuasions were made to him so great that he was brought in belief, that he could not live safely if the admiral (lord Thomas Seymour) lived, and that made him give consent to his death. Though these persons are not to be compared to your majesty, yet I pray God the like evil persuasions persuade not one sister against the other, and all, for that they have heard false report, and the truth not known.

"Therefore, once again, kneeling with humbleness of heart, because I am not suffered to bow the knees of my body, I humbly crave to speak with your highness, which I would not be so bold as to desire, if I knew not myself most clear, as I know myself most true.

"And as for the traitor Wyat, he might, peradventure, write me a letter, but on my faith I never received any from him. And as for the copy of the letter

1 MS. Harlejan., 7190-2. The document, in its original orthography, may be seen in Sir H. Ellis's Original Letters, 2d series, vol. ii., p. 255. The commencing sentence of this letter is a quotation from the noble speech of king John of France, when he returned to his captivity in England.

This promise must have been given at the last interview of the royal sisters, before Elizabeth retired to Asheridge, when she had to clear herself from conspiring with Noailles, the French ambassador, as before related.

sent to the French king, I pray God confound me eternally if ever I sent him word, message, token, or letter, by any means, and to this truth I will stand in ull my death.

"Your highness's most faithful subject, that hath been from the beginning, and will be to my end. ELIZABETH.

- I humbly crave but only one word of answer from yourself." This letter, written, as has been shown, on the spur of the moment, possesses more perspicuity and power than any other composition from the pen of Elizabeth. She had not time to hammer out artificial sentences, so completely entangled with far-fetched metaphors and pedantic quotations, that a commentator is required to construe every one of her ambiguous paragraphs. No such ambiguity is used here, where she pleads for her life in good earnest, and in unequivocal language appeals boldly, from the inimical privy council, to her sister's natural affection, and the event proved in the end, that she did not appeal in vain. Yet her majesty showed no symptoms of relenting, at the time it was delivered, being exceedingly angry with Sussex for having lost the tide, and, according to Renaud, she rated her council soundly for having presumed to deviate from the instructions she had issued. The next tide did not serve till midnight, misgivings were felt, lest some project were in agitation among her friends and confederates, to effect a rescue under cover of the darkness, and so it was decided that they would defer her removal till the following day. This was Palm Sunday, and the council considered that it would be the safest plan to have the princess conveyed to the Tower by water during the time of morning service, and on that account the people were strictly enjoined to carry their palms to church.

Sussex and the lord treasurer were with Elizabeth soon after nine o'clock that morning, and informed her that the time was now come, that her grace must away with them to the Tower. She replied, "The Lord's will be done; I am contented, seeing it is the queen's pleasure.” Yet as she was conducted through the garden to the barge, she turned her eyes towards every window in the lingering hope, as it was thought, of seeing some one who would espouse her cause, and finding herself disappointed in this, she passionately exclaimed, "I marvel what the nobles mean by suffering me, a prince, to be led into captivity, the Lord knoweth wherefore, for myself I do not.""

2

Her escort hurried her to the barge, being anxious to pass the shores of London at a time when they would be least likely to attract attention; but in their efforts not to be too late, they were too early, for the tide had not risen sufficiently high to allow the barge to shoot the bridge, where the fall of the water was so great that the experienced boatmen declined attempting it. The peers urged them to proceed, and they lay hovering upon the water in extreme danger for a time, and at length their caution was overpowered, by the imperative orders of the two noblemen, who insisted on their passing the arch. They reluctantly

'See his letter to the emperor Charles, dated March 22, 1553-4, in Tytler's Mary. *Speed; Fox.

66

essayed to do so, and struck the stern of the barge against the starling, and not without great difficulty and much peril succeeded in clearing it. Not one, perhaps, of the anxious spectators, who, from the houses which at that time overhung the bridge, beheld the jeopardy of that boat's company, suspected the quality of the pale girl, whose escape from a watery grave must have elicited an ejaculation of thanksgiving from many a kindly heart. Elizabeth objected to being landed at the traitor's gate, neither well could she, unless she should step into the water over her shoe," she said. One of the lords told her "she must not choose," and as it was then raining, offered her his cloak. "She dashed it from her, with a good dash," says our author,' and as she set her foot on the stairs, exclaimed, "Here lands as true a subject, being prisoner, as ever landed at these stairs. Before thee, O God, I speak it, having no other friend but thee alone!" To which the nobles who escorted her, replied, "If it were so, it was the better for her." When she came to the gate a number of the warders and servants belonging to the Tower were drawn up in rank, and some of them, as she passed, knelt and "prayed God to preserve her grace," for which they were afterwards reprimanded. Instead of passing through the gates to which she had been thus conducted, Elizabeth seated herself on a cold damp stone, with the evident intention of not entering a prison which had proved so fatal to her race. Bridges, the lieutenant of the Tower, said to her, "Madam, you had best come out of the rain, for you sit unwholesomely." "Better sit here than in a worse place," she replied, “for God knoweth, not I, whither you will bring me." 2

On hearing these words, her gentleman usher burst into a passion of weeping, which she perceiving, chid him for his weakness in thus giving way to his feelings, and discouraging her, whom he ought rather to comfort and support, "especially knowing her truth to be such that no man had any cause to weep for her;" when, however, she was inducted into the apartment appointed for her confinement, and the doors made fast upon her with locks and bolts, she was sore dismayed, but called for her book, and gathering the sorrowful remnant of her servants round her, begged them to unite with her in prayer for the divine protection and succour. Meantime the lords of the council who had brought her to the Tower proceeded to deliver their instructions to the authorities there for her safe keeping; but when some measure of unnecessary rigour was suggested by one of the commissioners, the earl of Sussex, who appears to have been thoroughly disgusted with the ungracious office that had been put upon him, and the unmanly conduct of his associates, sternly admonished them in these words :-"Let us take heed, my lords, that we go not beyond our commission, for she was our king's daughter, and is, we know, the prince next in blood, wherefore let us so deal with her now, that we have not, if it so happen, to answer for our dealings hereafter." 3

'Speed; Fox.

'Fox; Speed; Holinshed.

'Ibid

ELIZABETH,

SECOND QUEEN REGNANT OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND.

CHAPTER III.

Elizabeth in the Tower-Examined by Gardiner and the council-Confronted with sir J. Crofts-Her expostulation-Rigorous examination of her servants -Compelled to hear mass-Harsh treatment of her Protestant ladies - Her deportment in prison-Precautions against her escape-The Spanish ambassador urges her execution-Wyat exonerates her on the scaffold-She is permitted to take the air-Sympathy of children for Elizabeth-Flowers brought her in the Tower garden-Warden's child examined by the council- Her cause favoured by her uncle (Lord W. Howard) and Arundel-Illness of the queen-Attempt of Gardiner to destroy Elizabeth-Mary replaces her sister's picture-Refuses to have her tried-Elizabeth taken from the Tower to Richmond by water-Refuses to marry Philibert of Savoy - Harsh treatment on her journey to Woodstock-Sympathy of the people - Lord William's hospitality to Elizabeth-Her captivity at Woodstock-Her prison verses-Her needle-work-Dangerous illness-Recovery-Journey to Hampton CourtInterview with Gardiner, &c.-Her spirited conduct-Her interview with the queen-Reconciliation-Joins the royal parties at Christmas-Takes her place next the queen-Homage paid to her by Philip II.-She again rejects Philibert of Savoy-Returns to Woodstock-Accusations of sorcery with Dr. Dee -Philip II.'s friendship for Elizabeth-She is permitted to return to Hatfield -Sir T. Pope her castellan-His courtesy to Elizabeth - Fetes and pageants -Implication in new plots-Her letter to the queen — She visits the courtMeditates withdrawing to France - Fresh reconciliation with the queenOffer by the prince of Sweden-Her prudent conduct― Appointed successor to the crown-Mary's last requests to her-Contradictory statements — Interview with the Spanish ambassador-Sups with him at lady Clinton's-Their conversation-Queen Mary sends her the crown jewels - Premature reports of Mary's death Elizabeth sends Throckmorton - Death of the queen announced to her-Her exclamation on being saluted queen.

It was on the 18th of March that Elizabeth was lodged in the Tower, and she was soon afterwards subjected to a rigorous examination by the lord-chancellor Gardiner, with nine other of the lords of the council. They questioned her on her motives for her projected remove to Donnington Castle during the late insurrection. Elizabeth, being taken by surprise, allowed her natural propensity for dissimulation to betray her into the childish equivocation of affecting to be unconscious that she had such a house as Donnington.' When sir James Crofts was brought in and confronted with her, she recollected herself, and said, "As touching my remove to Donnington, my officers, and you, sir James Crofts, being then present, can well testify whether any rash or unbeseeming word

1Heywood's England's Elizabeth; Lingard.

did then pass my lips, which might not have well become a faithful and loyal subject."

Thus adjured, sir James Crofts knelt to her, and said, "He was heartily sorry to be brought in that day to be a witness against her grace, but he took God to record that he never knew anything of her, worthy the least suspicion."

1

"My lords," said Elizabeth," methinks you do me wrong to examine every mean prisoner against me: if they have done evil, let them answer for it. I pray you, join me not with such offenders. Touching my remove from Asheridge to Donnington, I do remember me that Mr. Hoby, mine officers, and you, sir James Crofts, had some talk about it; but what is that to the purpose? Might I not, my lords, go to mine own houses at all times?" 2

Whereupon the lord of Arundel, kneeling down, observed, "that her grace said truth, and that himself was sorry to see her troubled about such vain matters."

"Well, my lords," rejoined she, "you sift me narrowly, but you can do no more than God hath appointed, unto whom I pray to forgive you all." 3

This generous burst of feeling on the part of the earl of Arundel must have had a startling effect on all present, for he had been foremost in the death-cry against Elizabeth, and had urged the queen to bring her to trial and execution. Blinded by the malignant excitement of party feeling, he had, doubtless, so far deceived himself as to regard such a measure as a stern duty to the nation at large, in order to prevent future insurrections, by sacrificing one person for the security of Mary's government; but when he saw and heard the young defenceless woman, whom he and his colleagues had visited in her lonely prison-room, to browbeat and to entangle in her talk, his heart smote him for the cruel part he had taken, and he yielded to the generous impulse which prompted him to express his conviction of her innocence, and his remorse for the injurious treatment to which she was subjected. So powerful was the re-action of his feelings on this occasion, that he not only laboured as strenuously for the preservation of Elizabeth, as he had hitherto done for her destruction, but even went so far as to offer his heir to her for a husband, and subsequently made her a tender of his own hand, and became one of the most persevering of her wooers. It is to be feared that Elizabeth, then in the bloom of youth, and very fairly endowed by nature, exerted all her fascinations to entangle the heart of this stern pillar of her sister's throne in the perplexities of a delusive passion for herself. That the royal coquette indulged the stately old earl with deceitful hopes, appears evident by the tone he assumed towards her after her accession to the throne, and his jealousy of his handsome, audacious rival, Robert Dudley; but of this, hereafter.

1

Elizabeth's confinement in the Tower was, at first, so rigorous, that

Heywood; Fox 'Speed.

2 Speed; Fox; Bright's Miraculous Preservation.