The Queen protested against this second-hand evidence brought against her, and demanded to see the originals of the letters. "If my enemies possess them," said she, "why do they not produce them? I have the right to demand to see the originals and the copies side by side. It is quite possible that my ciphers have been tampered with by my enemies. I cannot reply to this accusation without full knowledge. Till then I must content myself with affirming solemnly that I am guiltless of the crimes imputed to me. I do not deny," continued the Queen, "that I have earnestly wished for liberty and done my utmost to procure it for myself. In this I acted from a very natural wish; but I take God to witness that I have never either conspired against the life of your Queen, nor approved a plot of that design against her. I have written to my friends, I confess; I appealed to them to assist me to escape from these miserable prisons in which I have languished for nearly nineteen years. I have also, I confess, often pleaded the cause of the Catholics with the Kings of Europe, and for their deliverance from the oppression under which they lie, I would willingly have shed my blood. But I declare formally that I never wrote the letters that are produced against me. Can I be responsible for the criminal projects of a few desperate men, which they planned without my knowledge or participation?"
The whole morning from about ten o'clock was occupied in reading the depositions and letters of Babington, the accusers doing their utmost to make Mary appear guilty, "without any one saying a single word for her."[36]
During the reading of the confession attributed to Babington, Mary was much moved by the allusion made therein to the Earl of Arundel and his brothers, as also to the young Earl of Northumberland; and she exclaimed with tears, "Alas! why should this noble house of Howard have suffered so much for me? Is it likely," continued she, "that I should appeal for assistance to Lord Arundel, whom I knew to be in prison? or to Lord Northumberland, who is so young, and whom I do not know? If Babington really confessed such things, why was he put to death without being confronted with me? It is because such a meeting would have brought to light the truth, that he was executed so hastily."
About one o'clock the Queen retired to take her dinner, after which she returned to the hall and the proceedings were resumed. Bourgoing describes so graphically the position of the Queen and her judges, that we give his own words:—
"Her Majesty having dined and returned to the same place, they continued to read aloud letters tending to the same end, the deposition and confession of M. Nau and M. Curle written on the back of a certain letter and signed by them, and also some others touching her intelligence with them. Her Majesty replied first to one and then to another without any order, but on hearing any point read, would, without being interrogated by them, say whether it were true or not. For their manner of proceeding was always to read or speak to persuade the lords that the Queen was guilty. They always addressed the lords, accusing the Queen in her presence, with confusion and without any order, and without any one answering them a word, in suchwise that when we returned to her room the poor Princess told us that it reminded her of the Passion of Jesus Christ, and that it seemed to her that, without wishing to make a comparison, they treated her as the Jews treated Jesus Christ when they cried, 'Tolle, Tolle, Crucifige'; and that she felt assured that there were those in the company who pitied her, and did not say what they thought."
In spite, however, of the vehemence of those "Messieurs les Chicaneux," as Bourgoing terms them, Mary preserved her calmness; and the hotter they grew, the more courageous and constant was she in her replies. She now recapitulated much of what she had before said to the Commissioners in her own room, in order that the assembly might know her sentiments; and after pointing out the injustice of her long imprisonment, she thus continues: "I have, as you see, lost my health and the use of my limbs. I cannot walk without assistance, nor use my arms, and I spend most of my time confined to bed by sickness. Not only this, but through my trials I have lost the small intellectual gifts bestowed on me by God, such as my memory, which would have aided me to recall those things which I have seen and read, and which might be useful to me in the cruel position in which I now find myself. Also the knowledge of matters of business which I formerly had acquired for the discharge of those duties in the state to which God called me, and of which I have been treacherously despoiled. Not content with this, my enemies now endeavour to complete my ruin, using against me means which are unheard of towards persons of my rank, and unknown in this kingdom before the reign of the present Queen, and even now not approved by rightful judges, but only by unlawful authority. Against these I appeal to Almighty God, to all Christian princes, and to the estates of this kingdom duly and lawfully assembled. Being innocent and falsely suspected, I am ready to maintain and defend my honour, provided that my defence be publicly recorded, and that I make it in the presence of some princes or foreign judges, or even before my natural judges; and this without prejudice to my mother the Church, to kings, sovereign princes, and to my son. With regard to the pretensions long put forward by the English (as their Chronicles testify) to suzerainty over my predecessors the Kings of Scotland, I utterly deny and protest against them, and I will not, like a femme de peu de cœur, admit them, nor by any present act, to which I may be constrained, will I fortify such a claim, whereby I should dishonour those princes my ancestors as well as myself, and acknowledge them to have been traitors or rebels. Rather than do this, I am ready to die for God and my rights in this quarrel, in which, as in all others, I am innocent.
"By this you can see that I am not ambitious, nor would I have undertaken anything against the Queen of England through a desire to reign. I have done with all that; and as regards myself, I wish for nothing but to pass the remainder of my life in peace and tranquillity of mind. My advancing age and my bodily weakness both prevent me from wishing to resume the reins of government. I have perhaps only two or three years to live in this world, and I do not aspire to any public position, especially when I consider the pain and désésperance which meet those who wish to do right, and act with justice and dignity in the midst of so perverse a generation, and when the whole world is full of crimes and troubles."[37]
Burleigh, "no longer able to contain himself," here interrupted the Queen, reproaching her with having assumed the name and arms of England, and of having aspired to the Crown. "What I did at that time," replied Mary, "was in obedience to the commands of Henry the Second, my father-in-law, and you well know the reason."
"But," retorted Burleigh, "you did not give up these practices even after we signed the peace with King Henry."