[Original]
Many charges were brought against the princess, but Mary's conscience forbade the shedding of her sister's blood; so, after a few weeks' deliberation, she shut her up in the Tower.
Elizabeth's letters to the queen, asserting her innocence, were unnoticed. She was forbidden to use English prayer-books, and compelled to hear mass. Two of her ladies who objected to this were dismissed by the queen's orders and replaced by Catholics. At first she was kept in close confinement, but after a while her health began to suffer, and she was permitted to take exercise in a little enclosed garden.
The officers and servants about the prison were respectful and attentive to the royal lady, and their children would bring her flowers from time to time. Her love of children was great throughout her whole life, and their ready sympathy during her imprisonment was most pleasing to her.
One day a little four-year-old child picked up a bunch of keys and carried them to her in the garden, saying:
"I have brought you the keys now, so you need not always stay here. You can unlock the gates and go out whenever you please."
Another child, the son of one of the soldiers, received so many tokens of reward from the royal prisoner in return for the bouquets he carried her, that he was, before long, suspected of acting as messenger between her and her fellow-prisoners, Courtenay and Lord Robert Dudley. Such may not have been the case; but the boy was prevented from again seeing the princess, and his father was severely reprimanded.