Volume II Part 5 (1/2)

Elizabeth's Attorney-General opened the pleadings He began by referring to the act of Parliament, in which it was n was undertaken against the life of the Queen He then described the late conspiracy, and atte copies of letters which, he alleged, she had written to Babington hi added letters froton to her, and the declarations and confessions which had been extorted from her secretaries, he asserted that the case was made out, and wound up his speech with a laboured display of legal knowledge and forensic oratory

Mary was now called upon for her defence; and she entered on it with coton's conspiracy, in so far as he entertained any designs injurious to Elizabeth's safety or the welfare of her kingdom;--she allowed that the letters which he was said to have addressed to her enuine, but it had not been proved that she ever received thearbled or fabricated;[191] that as to the confessions of her secretaries, they had been extorted by fear, and were therefore not to be credited; but that, if they were in any particulars true, these particulars must have been disclosed at the expense of the oath of fidelity they had come under to her when they entered her service, and that men ould perjure themselves in one instance were not to be trusted in any;--she objected besides that they had not been confronted with her according to an express law enacted in the thirteenth year of Elizabeth's reign ”that no one should be arraigned for intending the destruction of the Prince's life, but by the testimony and oath of titnesses, _to be produced face to face before hi she were to allow the authenticity of ainst her, they would not prove her guilty of any cri, if, after a calamitous captivity of nineteen years, in which she had lost forever her youth, her health, and her happiness, she ain the liberty of which she had been so unfairly robbed; but that as to scheainst the life of the Queen her sister, it was an infamy she abhored;--”I would disdain,” said she ”to purchase all that is most valuable on earth by the assasination of the meanest of the hus, the prospect of a crown is not so inviting that I should ruin er to the feelings of huion, and it is my nature to be more inclined to the devotion of Esther, than to the sword of Judith If ever I have given consent by ainst the life of the Queen of England, far froment of men, I shall not even pray for the mercy of God”[192]

Elizabeth's advocates were not a little surprised at the eloquent and able manner in which Mary conducted her defence They had expected to have every thing their oay, and to gain an easy victory over one unacquainted with the foral procedure, and unable to cope with their own professional talents But they were disappointed and baffled; and in order to ed to protract the proceedings for thole days Nor, after all, did the Coment, but adjourned the court to the Star-Chamber at Westminster, where they knew that Mary would not be present, and where, consequently, they would have no opposition to fear[193] On the 25th of October, they asseain examined the Secretaries, Naw and Curl, who appear to have been persons of little fidelity or constancy, and who confirment was delivered, that ”Mary, coer of France, was accessary to Babington's conspiracy, and had coland, tending to the hurt, death, and destruction of the royal person of Elizabeth, in opposition to the statute framed for her protection”[194]

Elizabeth ordered this verdict to be laid before her Parliahaality was not only confirmed, but the Lord Chancellor was sent up with an address to the Queen, in which, after stating their conviction that her security was incoive the sentence effect, by ordering her ih conscious that, if her personal safety had been endangered, she had herself to blath afforded her, for gratifying her long cherished hatred She affected, however, to be greatly perplexed how to act She declared that, if she were not afraid of endangering the welfare of her people, she would freely pardon Mary for all her treasonable practices, and she beseeched the House to endeavour to discover some less severe method of procedure The Parliament, as she expected, replied firmly, that they could not recoe of the day, called to Elizabeth's reeance upon Saul for sparing Agag, and on Ahab for sparing Benhadad Elizabeth still affected to be irresolute; and indeed it was not unlikely that she was so in reality; for, though anxious to have Mary removed, she was not so hardened and insane as not to know, that however it ht be sanctioned by the world,code of moral justice, when commanded by a Queen, as when perpetrated by a peasant She desired that her Parliament should be content for the present ”with an ansithout an answer” ”If I should say, that I will not do what you request, I ht say perhaps ht plunge myself into as much inconvenience as you endeavour to preservewas for the purpose of conveying to the nation an ienerous hesitation

Another reason why Elizabeth did not choose to be over-precipitate, was her fear of giving any deadly offence to foreign courts She ordered the sentence against Mary to be published both throughout her own kingdom and abroad, and she waited anxiously to observe the sensation which it should create, and the steps that iven herself much uneasiness upon this score Henry III of France had never been more than a very lukewarm advocate for the Queen of Scots, and the remonstrances he occasionally made in her behalf, were rather for the sake of appearances, than because he was anxious that they should be successful On the present occasion, startled by the ier, he seems to have been a little more in earnest, and ordered his ambassador to ainst the iniquitous severity that was intended But Elizabeth knew that his rage would evaporate in words, and paid little attention to the harangue In Scotland, the young King, James, was surrounded by land, and Elizabeth ell aware, that though he arding his mother, which had been carefully instilled into him from his earliest years, were not such as were likely to inspire hie her He had been constantly surrounded by her deadliest eneht hi parent His succession also to the English crown, greatly depended on the friendshi+p of Elizabeth; and she was able, in consequence, to maintain an ascendancy over him, which he dared not venture to resist He was not, however, so entirely destitute of all ordinary filial sentiments as to consent to remain a quiet spectator of his mother's execution ”His opinion is,”

said his worthless minion the Master of Gray, ”that it cannot stand with his honour to be a consenter to take his mother's life, but he does not care how strictly she be kept; and is content that all her old knavish servants should be hanged”[195] To prevent if possible a catastrophe which ”did not stand with his honour,” he sent the Master of Gray and Sir Robert Melville as his ambassadors to London, to press his objections upon the attention of Elizabeth The latter was true to the cause in which he had been sent, and his re to curry favour with Elizabeth, assured her that she had no cause to fear the King's resentment, for he was of an irresolute character and tiht happen, he would never think of eland Elizabeth listened with evident satisfaction to these artful insinuations; and desired her ham, to inform the Scottish monarch, that Mary's doom was already fixed by the decision of the nation, and that his mistress the Queen had it not in her power to save her Jarief, but not with the spirit that beca hi into the heart of England, he was contented to communicate his mother's unfortunate condition to his subjects, and order prayers to be said for her in all the churches,--”that it ht of his truth, and to protect her fro over her”

In the ers had been sent to the Queen of Scots, to report to her the sentence of the Coht be expected to follow So far fro the neith dismay, Mary solemnly raised her hands to heaven, and thanked God that she was so soon to be relieved from her troubles They were not yet, however, at a close; and even during the short remainder of her life, she was to be still further insulted Her keepers, Sir Aer to treat her with the reverence and respect due to her rank and sex The canopy of state, which she had always ordered to be put up in her aparte of royalty reer to be regarded as a Princess, but as a criminal; and the persons who ca their heads, or paying her any obeisance The attendance of a Catholic priest was refused, and an Episcopalian bishop sent in his stead, to point out and correct the errors of her ways Mary bore all these indignities with a calm spirit, which rose superior to the them into contrast with her own elevation of es,” said she, ”I will die a Queen My royal character is indelible, and I will surrender it with hty God, from whom I received it, and to whom my honour and my innocence are fully known”[196] In Deceh fron, it evinces so nanimity and calm consciousness of mental serenity, that it is i Elizabeth's inferiority, and Mary's triu terms:

”Madam, I thank God from the bottom of ainst e I would not wish it prolonged, though it were in h of time to experience its bitterness I write at present only to make three last requests which, as I can expect no favour from your implacable ministers, I should wish to owe to your Majesty, and to no other _First_, as in England, I cannot hope to be buried according to the soleion of the ancient Kings, your ancestors and ed,) and as in Scotland they have already violated the ashes of enitors, I have to request, that, as soon as my enemies have bathed their hands in my innocent blood, my doround; and, above all, that they may be permitted to carry it to France, where the bones of the Queen, my most honoured mother, repose Thus, that poor fra as it has been joined to my soul, may find it at last when they will be separated _Second_, as I dread the tyranny of the harsh men, to whose power you have abandoned me, I entreat your Majesty that I may not be executed in secret, but in the presence of my servants and other persons, who may bear testiuard the last hours of hs from the false rumours which my adversaries may spread abroad _Third_, I request that h so much misery, and with so much constancy, may be allowed to retire without molestation wherever they choose, to enjoy for the reacies which my poverty has enabled me to bequeath to them I conjure you, Madauinity, by the memory of Henry VII, our common father, and by the royal title which I carry with me to death, not to refuse me those reasonable demands, but to assure me, by a letter under your own hand, that you will comply with them; and I shall then die as I have lived, your affectionate sister and prisoner, MARY, Queen of Scots”[197]

Whether Elizabeth ever answered this letter, does not appear; but it produced so little effect, that epistles from her to Sir Amias Paulet still exist, which prove that, in her anxiety to avoid taking upon herself the responsibility of Mary's death, she wished to have her privately assassinated or poisoned Paulet, however, though a harsh and violent man, positively refused to sanction so nefarious a sche ainst her own iniquity, and affect indignation at the alleged offences of another[198]

But perceiving at length, that no alternative re her the warrant for Mary's execution, and after perusing it, she deliberately affixed her signature She then desired hi, with an ironical srief when he saw it

Walsingham sent the warrant to the Chancellor, who affixed the Great Seal to it, and despatched it by Beal, with a commission to the Earls of Shrewsbury, Kent, Derby, and others, to see it put in execution Davidson was afterwards made the victim of Elizabeth's artifice,--who, to co, pretended he had obeyed her orders too quickly, and doomed him in consequence to perpetual imprisonment[199]

CHAPTER XII

MARY'S DEATH, AND CHARACTER

On the 7th of February 1587, the Earls, who had been commissioned to superintend Mary's execution, arrived at Fotheringay After dining together, they sent to inform the Queen, that they desired to speak with her Mary was not well, and in bed; but as she was given to understand that it was an affair of moment, she rose, and received theether with her physician, her surgeon, and apothecary, and four or five male servants, were in attendance The Earl of Shrewsbury, and the others associated with hi before her respectfully, with their heads uncovered, coreeable duty hich they had been intrusted Beal was then desired to read the warrant for Mary's execution, to which she listened patiently; and h she was sorry it ca the mandate for her death, and was not unprepared to die ”For many years,” she added, ”I have lived in continual affliction, unable to do good to myself or to those who are dear to me;--and as I shall depart innocent of the crie, I cannot see why I should shrink from the prospect of immortality” She then laid her hand on the New Testament, and solemnly protested that she had never either devised, coland The Earl of Kent, with more zeal than wisdom, objected to the validity of this protestation, because it was made on a Catholic version of the Bible; but Mary replied, that it was the version, in the truth of which she believed, and that her oath should be therefore only the less liable to suspicion

She was advised to hold soh, whoht with the that she would die in the faith in which she had lived, and beseeching them to allow her to see her Catholic Confessor, who had been for some time debarred her presence This however they in their turn positively refused[200]

Other topics were introduced, and casually discussed Before leaving the world, Mary felt a natural curiosity to be inforh connected with herself, and generally known, had not penetrated the walls of her prison She asked if no foreign princes had interfered in her behalf,--if her secretaries were still alive,--if it was intended to punish theht no letters fro of Scotland, ell, and had evinced any interest in the fate of asatisfied upon these points, she proceeded to inquire when her execution was to take place? Shrewsbury replied, that it was fixed for the next itated for a fewthat it was more sudden than she had anticipated, and that she had yet to make her will, which she had hitherto deferred, in the expectation that the papers and letters which had been forcibly taken froained her self-possession; and infor the Commissioners that she desired to be left alone to ht

During the whole of this scene, astonishrief, overwhelmed her attendants, all of ere devoted to her As soon as the Earls and their retinue retired, they gave full vent to their feelings, and Mary herself was the only one who reoine, her physician, loudly exclaiainst the iniquitous precipitancy hich she was to be hurried out of existence

More than a few hours' notice was allowed, he said, to the very meanest criminal; and to limit a Princess, with numerous connections both at hoour which no guilt could authorize Mary told hination to her fate, and learn to regard it as the will of God She then requested her attendants to kneel with her, and she prayed fervently for some time in the , she e all the money she had by her into separate purses, and affixed to each, with her own hand, the nah she sat down to table, she eat little Herthe repast, though she spoke little, placid smiles were frequently observed to pass over her countenance The calnanimity of their mistress, only increased the distress of her servants They saw her sitting ast them in her usual health, and, with al of the viands that were set before her; yet they knew that it was the last ether; and that the interchange of affectionate service upon their part, and of condescending attention and endearing gentleness on her's, which had linked them to her for so many years, was now about to ter to offer her consolation, they were unable to discover any for themselves As soon as the melancholy iven to her; and putting it to her lips, drank to the health of each of her attendants by nae her in liketears with the wine, drank to her, asking pardon at the same time, for all the faults he had ever committed In the true spirit of Christian huave theotten her duty towards theion, and to live in peace and charity together, and with all men The inventory of her wardrobe and furniture was then brought to her; and she wrote in the in, opposite each article, the naiven She did the sas, jewels, and all her most valuable trinkets; and there was not one of her friends or servants, either present or absent, to whoot to leave a ed, Mary sat down to her desk to arrange her papers, to finish her will, and to write several letters She previously sent to her confessor, who, though in the Castle, was not allowed to see her, entreating that he would spend the night in praying for her, and that he would inform her what parts of Scripture he considered most suited for her perusal at this juncture She then drew up her last will and testa her pen fro at intervals to think, she covered two large sheets with close writing, forgetting nothing of anyherself with all that precision and clearness which distinguished her style in the very happiest moments of her life She naerow, her ambassador in France; Lesley, Bishop of Ross; and Monsieur de Ruysseau, her Chancellor She next wrote a letter to her brother-in-law, the King of France, in which she apologized for not being able to enter into her affairs at greater length, as she had only an hour or two to live, and had not been informed till that day after dinner that she was to be executed next”Thanks be unto God, however,” she added, ”I have no terror at the idea of death, and solemnly declare to you, that I meet it innocent of every crime The bearer of this letter, and my other servants, will recount to you how I comported myself in my last moments” The letter concluded with earnest entreaties, that her faithful followers should be protected and rewarded

Her anxiety on their account, at such a enerosity of disposition, which was one of the leading features of Mary's character[202] About two in the , she sealed up all her papers and said she would now think no more of the affairs of this world, but would spend the rest of her time in prayer and commune with her own conscience

She went to bed for some hours; but she did not sleep Her lips were observed in continual motion, and her hands were frequently folded and lifted up towards Heaven[203]

On theof Wednesday the 8th of February, Mary rose with the break of day; and her doathered round her She told them that she had made her will, and requested that they would see it safely deposited in the hands of her executors She likewise beseeched them not to separate until they had carried her body to France; and she placed a sum of money in the hands of her physician to defray the expenses of the journey Her earnest desire was, to be buried either in the Church of St Dennis, in Paris, beside her first husband Francis, or at Rheims, in the tomb which contained the remains of her mother She expressed a wish too, that, besides her friends and servants, a number of poor people and children from different hospitals should be present at her funeral, clothed into the Catholic custohted taper[204]

She now renewed her devotions, and was in theround her, when a er from the Commissioners knocked at the door, to announce that all was ready She requested a little longer tiranted

As soon as she desired the door to be opened, the Sheriff, carrying in his hand the white wand of office, entered to conduct her to the place of execution Her servants crowded round her, and insisted on being allowed to accoiven by Elizabeth, they were told that she ainst a piece of such arbitrary cruelty they remonstrated loudly, but in vain; for as soon as Mary passed into the gallery, the door was closed, and believing that they were separated from her forever, the shrieks of the women and the scarcely less audible lamentations of the men were heard in distant parts of the castle

At the foot of the staircase leading down to the hall below, Mary was met by the Earls of Kent and Shrewsbury; and she was allowed to stop to take farewell of Sir Andrew Melvil, the master of her household, whom her keepers had not allowed to come into her presence for some time before

With tears in his eyes, Melvil knelt before her, kissed her hand, and declared that it was the heaviest hour of his life Mary assured hiood Melvil,” said she, ”that all this world is vanity When you speak ofto forgive raced Scotland ht that I had always been true to France, the land of my happiest years Tell my son,” she added, and when she named her only child of whom she had been so proud in his infancy, but in whos for the first time overpowered her, and a flood of tears flowed froht of him in my last moments, and that I have never yielded, either by word or deed, to aught that ht lead to his prejudice; desire him to preserve the memory of his unfortunate parent, and may he be a thousand times more happy andleave of Melvil, Mary turned to the Commissioners and told them, that her three last requests were, that her secretary Curl, whom she blamed less for his treachery than Naw, should not be punished; that her servants should have free permission to depart to France; and that some of them should be allowed to come down from the apartments above to see her die The Earls answered, that they believed the two forranted; but that they could not concede the last, alleging, as their excuse, that the affliction of her attendants would only add to the severity of her sufferings But Mary was resolved that some of her own people should witness her last nity,” she said, ”of perers You are the servants of a maiden Queen, and she herself, were she here, would yield to the dictates of hu faithful to me to assist me at my death

Remember, too, that I am cousin to your er of France, and the anointed Queen of Scotland” Ashamed of any further opposition, the Earls allowed her to name four male and two female attendants, whom they sent for, and permitted to remain beside her for the short time she had yet to live[205]