The jewel has no clearer, purer part—
It may be harder, but is not more true.”
The sentiment in this epigram must have been gathered from expressions made by Mary herself: for, at a time when she was at Dumferline and desired and hoped for an interview with Elizabeth, she received, through the hands of Randolph, a letter from the English Queen, “which first she did read and after put into her bosom next unto her schyve.” Mary entered into a long private conversation with Randolph on the subject of their proposed interview; and asked him, in confidence, to tell her frankly whether it were ever likely to take effect. “Above any thing,” said she, “I desire to see my good sister; and next, that we may live like good sisters together, as your mistress hath written unto me that we shall. I have here,” continued she, “a ring with a diamond fashioned like a heart: I know nothing that can resemble my good will unto my good sister better than that. My meaning shall be expressed by writing in a few verses, which you shall see before you depart; and whatsomever lacketh therein, let it be reported by your writing. I will witness the same with my own hand, and call God to record that I speak as I think with my heart, that I do as much rejoice of that continuance of friendship that I trust shall be between the queen my sister and me and the people of both realms, as ever I did in any thing in my life.” “With these words,” continues Randolph, “she taketh out of her bosom the Queen’s Majesty’s letter; and after that she had read a line or two thereof, putteth it again in the same place, and saith, ‘If I could put it nearer my heart I would.’”[280]
Mary’s sad going to England, makes us remember Wordsworth’s sonnet:
“——; but Time, the old Saturnian seer,
Sighed on the wing as her foot pressed the strand,
With step prelusive to a long array
Of woes and degradations, hand in hand,
Weeping Captivity and shuddering Fear,
Stilled by the ensanguined block of Fotheringay!”