France. Perhaps another pleader, which, though often disregarded, is never long together inactive, except in minds completely depraved, might also warn her of the guilt she was incurring. At least it appears certain, that her affected delays were succeeded by real hesitation, and that she experienced all the torments of irresolution. Her ministers represented that she had already gone too far to recede with safety; and at length she signed the warrant for execution, and ordered it to be sealed with the great seal. Even after this she betrayed symptoms of indecision; but having desired not to be any further troubled in the matter, her ministers ventured to send the warrant to Fotheringay.

When the queen was informed that the sentence had been executed, and that the unfortunate Mary was no more, she affected the utmost astonishment, grief, and indignation. She put on deep mourning, abandoned herself to sighs and tears, drove her ministers from her presence with furious reproaches, and endeavoured, by every art, to throw upon them the whole odium of the transaction. What credit was due to these demonstrations of sorrow, may be determined from the fact, that, during her previous irresolution, she had endeavoured to procure the secret assassination of her victim;

but the base proposal was refused by Sir Amias Paulet and another gentleman, to the queen's great mortification. When this scheme failed, she signed the warrant *; and the meanness with which she now endeavoured to transfer the guilt to others, must be reprobated by every honourable mind. It is no wonder that lord Burleigh begged permission to retire from office; but Elizabeth was not inclined to relinquish services so valuable. She condescended, after a considerable interval, to be reconciled to the lord treasurer, and endeavoured to save appearances by the sacrifice of a meaner victim. Davison, the secretary by whom the queen had sent the warrant to the chancellor, was deprived of his office and sent to the Tower: he not only underwent a long imprisonment, but was reduced to beggary by the rigorous exaction of a heavy fine. Neither the faithfulness of his past services, the integrity of his general character, nor the intercessions of Burleigh and the earl of Essex, could induce the queen to lay aside the appearance of unmitigable resentment, and she would never more suffer him to enter her presence.

The behaviour of the unfortunate queen of Scots, in the last scene of her life, has been ex

Aikin, p. 176-186; and Harris's Lives, vol. i. p. 19.

tolled for its magnanimity; but to give this praise to the calmness she assumed, is surely a perversion of language. She bade Sir Andrew Melville tell her son, that she had done nothing injurious to his honour or his rights; though she was actually in treaty to disinherit him, and had consented to a plot for taking him prisoner and carrying him off to Rome. She denied to the last the charge of having shared in the conspiracy against Elizabeth, though it had been made clearly evident on her trial; and in her will, written two days before her death, she rewarded as faithful servants her two secretaries, who had deposed to the truth of the fact. Her assertions of innocence can therefore only be regarded as the effect of a criminal desire of self-justification, which induced her to persist, to the last hour of her life, in shameless and deliberate falsehood*. It is of importance that the insensibility of a hardened conscience should not be represented as true fortitude, or mistaken for the dignity of injured virtue.

But the errors or the crimes of Mary form no adequate apology for the exercise of criminal jurisdiction over an independent sovereign, whose confidence in the honour of her kins

Russell, p. 24, note, and p. 25. Aikin, p. 194. Harris, ib, 20,

woman, however rash, ought at least to have insured her personal safety. Had it not been for the pity and indignation excited by this injustice, by the selfish policy and hypocritical pretences of Elizabeth, it is probable that the charms of her rival would have lost much of their fascinating power; and that historians might have concurred in representing her as a woman of strong passions and weak judgment, who had never submitted to the control of religious or moral principle.

The plans of Philip were now so far matured, that he no longer made a secret of his purpose. Every part of his European dominions was agitated by the bustle of preparation. In all the ports of Sicily, Naples, Spain, and Portugal, vessels of uncommon size and force were built and equipped for service. Armies were levied and quartered in the maritime provinces, and plans were concerted for such an embarkation as had never before appeared on the ocean. It was proposed that the fleet, which, from the confident anticipation of success, was called The Invincible Armada, should sail from Lisbon, and after chasing away such English or Flemish vessels as might attempt to obstruct its progress, proceed up the English Channel: there it was to be joined by a fleet of transports, conveying from the Netherlands an army of

35,000 men.

This immense armament was then to enter the Thames, to land the whole Spanish army in the neighbourhood of London, and at one blow decide the fate of England*.

Such was the outline of this gigantic plan, from which the neighbouring states of Europe anticipated nothing short of the entire destruction of the English government; and while these apprehensions prevailed abroad, the issue of the contest was greatly dreaded at home. But amidst the general alarm, Elizabeth and her minister remained calm and undaunted. When the mighty preparations of the Spaniards were spoken of with dismay in his presence, Burleigh firmly replied, "They shall do no more than God will suffer them." Nor were these words of course: in all the dangers and vicissitudes of his life, this great man was remarkable for his reliance on Divine Providence. Elizabeth, on her part, strove to excite the courage and loyalty of the army, by those popular arts of which she was so complete a mistress. She appeared on horseback in the camp at Tilbury, and riding through the lines with a cheerful, animated countenance, exhorted the soldiers to do their duty, professed her own intention to

* Russell, p. 28, &c.