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CHAPTER XIV THE QUEEN OF SCOTS
The councilor’s words that Elizabeth was more queen than woman were shown to be true whenever matters came to the proof. She gave her favorite Leicester everything that he asked save her own royal hand, but on occasion she could be as severe with Leicester as if he had been her enemy.

It was the custom for the general of an English army to serve without salary and to contribute generously to his own expenses and those of his troops. The general, then, must be a rich man, and in order to have the most perfect control over his soldiers he must be a man who was known to be in the confidence of the queen. No one was better qualified in these important respects to lead an army than Leicester, and he was put at the head of the forces that were sent to the aid of the Dutch states then revolting against Philip. Their246 leader had been assassinated, and they asked to be annexed to England. Elizabeth saw clearly that to grant their request would bring on war with Spain at once, and she refused. When Leicester was appointed commander, she gave him the most positive orders to accept no such position for her as ruler of the Low Countries. News soon came that Leicester had been made governor general.

“Your Majesty,” said her informer, “it is said that Lord Leicester is shown great honor in the Low Countries.”

“That is well,” said the queen. “The commander of an army should ever be treated with deference.”

“The Dutch states prove by the respect given to Lord Leicester what honor they would show to your Majesty if you were with them.”

Mary Stuart receiving her death sentence.—From painting by Carl Piloty.

“In what fashion do they show their respect?” asked the queen so gently that Leicester’s enemy took courage and ventured to go a step further.

“He is called governor-general, and they say that men kneel before him to kiss his hand, and that he has already a court as brilliant as that of England.”

247 “Is that true?” asked Elizabeth with a feigned indifference. “Do you know more of this court of his?”

“Little now, but there will be more and greater news, for it is said that Lady Leicester is about to go to Holland and that with her will go such a train of ladies and gentlemen and such rich coaches, litters, and sidesaddles, that your Majesty has none such in England.”

Then Elizabeth’s wrath broke forth. “I will let the upstart know,” said she, “how easily the hand that has exalted him can beat him down.” She wrote an angry letter to her absent favorite which said:—

“I have raised you from the dust and shown you favor above all others, and I should never have imagined you would dare to break my express commandment to accept any such title.”

It was a hard position for Burleigh, since he himself and the rest of the council had wished Leicester to accept the title and so force the queen to become sovereign of the Dutch states, whether she would or not. The queen’s rage was visited upon even her old friend and adviser, and to Burleigh248 himself she declared, “You are nothing but a presumptuous fellow.”

The great test of Elizabeth’s character was soon to come, for the year 1587 was at hand. Would she be woman or queen? A stern question must be decided. Jesting with Raleigh, exasperating King Philip, storming at Leicester and then forgiving him, amusing herself with Leicester’s handsome stepson, the Earl of Essex, bedecking herself in gorgeous attire that flashed with jewels and gold, dreaming over new routes to India and new English nations in Virginia—all these had to be put away for the time. What should be the fate of the Queen of Scots could no longer be left undecided.

Mary had been a captive in England for nearly eighteen years, and those years had been almost as full of peril to Elizabeth as to her prisoner. If Mary was dead, the Catholics who were plotting against Elizabeth would have no object in trying to take her life, for Mary’s son James was the next heir to the throne, and he was as strong a Protestant as Elizabeth. On the other hand, if Elizabeth were no longer alive, Mary would become queen of England, and Protestants would249 be obliged to be loyal to her as their lawful sovereign. They would be the more content knowing that her Protestant son would succeed her. Thus, if either Mary or Elizabeth were dead, England would be free from the plots and conspiracies that had been revealed, one after another, during the captivity of Mary.

At the discovery of each of these plots, Mary’s imprisonment became more rigorous. It was claimed that she was at the bottom of every conspiracy.

“The Queen of Scots and her friends will yet have my life,” said Elizabeth, and she added jestingly to her councilors, “I’ll come back after I am dead and see her make your heads fly.”

Walsingham, one of Elizabeth’s ministers, had been most watchful of these plots. His spies were ever on the lookout, and in the summer of 1586 he found sure proof of a conspiracy to take the life of the queen. Was Mary connected with this plot? Sworn testimony declared that she was. Her papers were seized, and among them were found letters from many leading nobles of England expressing sympathy in her troubles. Mary was at once removed to Fotheringay Castle, where250 she was much more closely guarded than ever before. Thirty-six commissioners were appointed to try her on the charge of plotting against the life of the English queen. She was cited to appear before them.

“That will I never do,” she declared. “I have a right to be tried by my peers. I am a queen, and only sovereigns are my peers, but I will defend myself before the queen of England and her council or even before the English Parliament.”

Then a letter was given her from Elizabeth which read;—

“You have attempted to take my life and to bring my kingdom to destruction by bloodshed. I have never proceeded so harshly against you, but have protected and maintained you like myself. It is my will that you answer the nobles and peers of the kingdom as if I were myself present. Act plainly, without reserve, and you will sooner be able to obtain favor from me.”

“Is it wise to make these refusals?” asked one of her friends. “You are in the power of the English queen, is it not better to rouse her no further by hopeless demands?”

251 “True, it is hopeless,” answered Mary, “it is all hopeless. I am a sovereign kept here unlawfully as a prisoner by the royal cousin to whom I fled for help in my trouble. Her laws have not protected me, why then must I be sentenced under them?”

“The court is convened,” said the commissioners, “and if you refuse to appear, you will be at once declared guilty without a trial. Queen Elizabeth has said many times that nothing would please her so much as to have proof of your innocence. Is it wise to refuse to give proof?”

Finally Mary yielded. Her trial would not be legal to-day, for she was allowed no counsel, she was not even permitted to see her own papers or to hear and question those persons who testified against her, but it was according to the laws of the time, and she was tried with no greater severity than was shown to all prisoners accused of treason.

“Your letters prove that you have allowed your correspondents to address you as queen of England,” declared the crown lawyers, “that you have tried to induce King Philip to invade our252 country, and that you have been knowing to the late plot to assassinate the lawful queen of the realm.”

“With the plot against the life of my cousin Elizabeth I had nothing to do,” declared Mary. “That I have sought to gain my freedom by the aid of my friends I do not deny. My lords, I am unjustly and cruelly deprived of my liberty. Do you blame me for trying by every means in my power to recover it? Could anyone do otherwise?”

So the charges and the denials went on, and when the trial was over, the judges left Fotheringay Castle. Again they met, and everyone voted that Mary was guilty of high treason in plotting against the life of the English queen. She was sentenced to death. This was the report made to Parliament, and that body solemnly agreed to the verdict. It was proclaimed in London, and the whole city gave itself up to rejoicing. Bells were rung, bonfires blazed in every square, shouts of joy and psalms of thanksgiving resounded throughout the town.

“Think you that the queen will ever carry out the sentence?” asked one Londoner of another.

253 “It is many years,” was the reply, “that the hand of Elizabeth alone has saved the life of the Scotch queen. Parliament decreed her death fifteen years ago and they say that Elizabeth was the angriest woman in England. ‘Would you have me put to death the bird that, to escape the hawk, has fled to me for protection? I’ll never sign such a bill,’ and she never did.”

“The constant dropping of water will wear away stone,” said the first, “and yet I hear that she has sent a message to Parliament commanding them to find some other way.”

“Until the axe falls, nothing will persuade me that the child of Henry VIII. will consent to see the blood of one of her own proud race flow at the hand of the executioner,” declared the second, “and what is more, she will not do a deed that will arouse the scorn and hatred of Europe. Mary’s head is safe.”

“Not so fast, my friend. Who are the supporters of Mary? Who is the ‘Europe’ whose scorn will check the pen of Elizabeth when she is about to sign the death warrant?”

“Philip, the Pope, the king of France, and254 Mary’s own son James. They are a powerful company.”

“Are they? Philip is really almost at war with us now, but it is not in Mary’s inter............
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