CHAP XXII 1572 January said that they were for ever complaining of t backwardness.1 The Bishop of Ross, when again questioned that Norfolk had been forced into a positio had not sought and from which he would have he possessed the courage. It was thought th would fail without his help and sanction, ‹ drifted from step to step without his will if it.2 The Catholics laid the blame of their f him; and although Elizabeth's judgmen unaffected as to the broad bearings of h she dwelt upon every favourable feature allowed him to know that she thought c pity, and the Duke poured out upon her : that voluble emotion which weak natures ha at command. 'He loved her Majesty,' he 3 remem 1 'When I brought the Duke the deal with her to her 'The Bishop of I was on hand with as I remember, sa one himself and ver and when he saw denying it, he said. Lord will do nothin shall come of him. remedy but patien Queen, my mistres away: if he will there be enough the fession of Barker, Domestic. 2 Confession of t -MSS. MARY QU kumsan terved beltis nonsense. The beret, and he The temptation came to death was too ind of all CHAP XXII 1572 February Peers, he said, had done their duty, but mercy had overcome justice; and if his breach of promise had not too much discredited him, he hoped that the delay of execution was meant to tell him that he was to live.1 It was but too certain that Elizabeth was relapsing into her habitual indecision. The experienced Sadler wrote that the discredit which would grow of inconstancy at such a time, in a matter of such moment, was so great, that all good subjects mourned and lamented, and the evil rejoiced and took comfort, thinking either that God had taken from her the power to punish, or else that she was afraid."2 The Queen's plain-spoken cousin, Lord Hunsdon, was even more decided in his disapprobation. เ 6 'Her Majesty's carelessness of herself,' he wrote to Burghley, 'doth not only amaze me, but gives me to 'think it but labour lost to be so curious for foreign. 'affairs, and so negligent for the preservation of her own person, the destruction whereof is the only thing which 'the enemies seek and desire; for the compassing where'of no practice shall be omitted, or convenient time fore'slowed. Although God has miraculously revealed the same, it follows not that He will do so still, the rather 'because He so mercifully discovers these practices to her, and she so carelessly neglects to provide for the danger 'thereof. This carelessness cannot come of herself, and 'therefore is the more to be feared; for naturally there is 'none but if they knew of any that determines and con'spires their death, but they will seek all the ways and ' means they can to prevent the same in such sort as they may sleep without fear; and thus, what is it for her 'Majesty, who knows the malice of her enemies to be 1 Declaration of the Duke of Norfolk, Feb. 26.-MURDIN. 2 Sadler to Burghley, Feb. 27.— MURDIN. 'so great, as there shall be no practice left unsought 'for nor unexecuted; and yet, as I fear, she is made to 'believe she is in no peril. God grant, that if any do so 'persuade her, they be not such as would rejoice at her 'fall. The world knows her to be wise, and surely there 'cannot be a greater point of wisdom than for any to 'be careful of their own estate, and especially the preser'vation of their own life. How much more needful is 'it for her Majesty to take heed, upon whose life depends 'a whole commonwealth, the utter ruin of the whole. try, and the utter subversion of religion. And if by her negligence or womanish pity these things happen, what she hath to answer for to God she herself 'knows. God forbid that any should advise her to be bloody, if her surety may be without blood; but if ' matters fall out so that she cannot be sure without it, 'better for some members to be cut off than the whole 'body to perish. My Lord, I know you to be wise and 'careful of her estate. Let not the fear of offending others cause you to suffer her to run headlong into her ' own destruction. Let her remember the wise and 'politic government of all her predecessors, and of all 'the Princes of the world, which is to spare none which 'shall dare touch God's holy anointed; no, not their ' own sons, if any be so unnatural.' 1 6 Remonstrances like these, with the return at intervals of her own wiser judgment, produced some effect upon Elizabeth. More than once she repeated her order for the drawing of the warrant. At the beginning of April she said distinctly that her hesitation was at an end, and that the execution should take place." But the uncertainty in herself, and the influence of her 1 Hunsdon to Burghley, March 20. Duke of Norfolk, April 9.-MSS. -MSS. Border. Hatfield. 2 Warrant for the execution of the CHAP XXII 1572 February CHAP XXII 1572 February favourites, once more undid her purpose. The time of grace was extended indefinitely, and the unhappy Norfolk persuaded himself that the bitterness of death was passed. Nor with the lady at Sheffield could she any more resolve what to do. When the conspiracy was first discovered, neither Mary Stuart nor her friends expected any kind of mercy. Leaving vengeance out of sight, not a Prince in Europe, on mere grounds of policy, would at that period have spared a competitor for the crown who had tried the game of rebellion and had failed. Both Alva and Philip had expressed their fears, that if the plot was found out, she would be executed, and they did not pretend to think that her execution would be unjust. A Sovereign who in Elizabeth's circumstances ventured to dally with her danger, was considered forsaken of God and given over to destruction. But time passed on, and except close confinement and the suppression of her correspondence, Mary Stuart experienced no further inconvenience. Buchanan's Detectio' was published; Elizabeth announced at last that she could never more be restored to Scotland, and she was publicly termed 'the late Queen;' but there was no talk of bringing her to trial as well as the Duke; no private assassins came down to Sheffield to do the work which but for English interference would have been completed at Lochleven; and at last, at Christmas, just before Norfolk was brought to the bar, she tried the effect of a letter, in the hope of saving him. Notwithstanding the wrongs which she had suffered, she said, she could not forget that Elizabeth was her nearest relative, who had once seemed to love her. She had listened, poor fool that she was, and had laid herself open to be injured through her confidence, and she had been |