P.S.—I am very sorry that your letters of the 14th, received the 20th at nine in the morning, came not to my hands in time convenient for the stay of the priest, who, arriving here the 17th, was immediately admitted to the presence of his mistress, according to the direction which I had before received in that behalf. The inconvenience whereof is not so great in matter of policy as in conscience, because, indeed, the priest is [of] weak and slender judgment, and can give neither counsel nor advice worthy of a young scholar. I feared lest he might have learned some bad news during his abode with Mr. Gresley, but having groped him the best I can, do find that he is a mere stranger almost to those things which are common to all men, which I impute to his want of language and to Mr. Gresley's absence from his house now many weeks by reason of his being at London, so that he hath had little other company than of his keeper. I might have doubted lest he had dissembled his knowledge in the occurrents of this time, but having searched his papers, do find two leaves of paper craftily (as he thought) inserted in the midst of his philosophical exercises, wherein he hath set down a daily note of all that he heard spoken unto him, and likewise his answers in all this time of his absence, the same being ridiculous or do bewray his great indiscretion. I would have been glad, for some Christian respects, that he should have had no access to this Queen until the night before her execution, and, indeed, having received direction to send for him, I took it for a strong argument that the time of her execution was near at hand.[78]
Paulet's fear that Mary's letter would touch Elizabeth was partly justified by the event. When it was at last forwarded, Leicester thus writes of this letter to Walsingham: "There is a letter from the Scottish Queen that hath wrought tears, but I trust shall do no further hurt therein; albeit the delay is too dangerous." Leicester apparently knew his royal mistress's character better than did Paulet, for the tears induced no change of policy.[79]
[CHAPTER VIII]
FURTHER INDIGNITIES
ON Thursday 22nd December Sir Amyas sent for both Melville and Bourgoing,—an unusual proceeding, especially as hitherto, since his return, Melville alone had taken and brought back the messages to the Queen. When they were in the presence of Sir Amyas, he said that as he had something to send to the Queen, he thought it expedient to give it to them, declaring he knew not what it contained, but delivered it as he had received it. He then gave them a letter from Curle to his sister concerning certain money which the Queen had promised him. That Curle should have had the "courage," as Bourgoing expresses it, to apply to Mary in this way, seems to point to the fact that he considered himself innocent in her regard, and throws fresh doubt on the confessions supposed to have been extorted from him and Nau. The bags for the Queen contained some of her accounts; the seals had been broken, as Melville and Bourgoing pointed out to Paulet, who replied that he had, according to his duty, broken them, that he might be aware of the contents. A letter from Nau was among the papers, and a short memorandum which he had made on the papers taken to him, but the chief accounts for the year were missing, nor did they ever reach Mary; in spite of much correspondence on the subject between Paulet, Walsingham, Waad, and others, and Elizabeth's own apparent wish that they should be restored.
At this time Paulet was laid up by a cold, and all communications between him and his prisoner had to be conveyed by her attendants. Day by day the Queen anxiously waited, hoping to see Paulet and inquire from him concerning the subjects which were to her of the deepest interest, but his own cold and gout occupied Paulet's attention far more than his prisoner's feelings. At last on the 8th of January, knowing that he had been out the day before, Mary sent to beg him to visit her, but Paulet still pleaded cold and inability to come. "We," continues Bourgoing, who was evidently one of those sent, "according to our charge, said that Her Majesty, being unable to communicate with him, and having no reply to her letter written nearly three weeks past (to Queen Elizabeth), and hearing nothing about it, but being always kept in suspense, proposed writing, and that as he seemed to be better in health, Her Majesty would prepare her letters, so that when he was well he would find them all ready."
Paulet, appearing a little angry, replied that Mary could write and prepare what she liked. The Queen therefore wrote once more, and for the last time, to her cousin,—a letter which, as we shall see, Paulet this time refused to send at all, and of which the dignified and pathetic contents would have remained unknown had not Bourgoing preserved it. It runs as follows, with the exception of one paragraph, which is unintelligible:—
The Last Letter from Queen Mary to Queen Elizabeth.[80]
Madame—Having prepared myself for death, according to what it pleased you to signify to me, thus ridding my enemies of their charge, and that my life may be disposed of according to their designs, I have so willingly made up my mind to leave this false world, that I protest to God and to you, that since I have not aspired to, nor do I desire, any worldly satisfaction save those which, for the discharge of my conscience, I requested through my Lord Buckhurst and Beale, and those that I have asked of you in the last memorandum by my own hand, which depend entirely on your benevolence, and which can offend no one. As regards the petitions and requests I have been in part gratified, namely, the arrival of my chaplain and receiving a portion of my money—but of my papers I have only received certain extracts[81]—and as I do not think you intend that things belonging to me, or the affairs of my domain, should fall into other hands, as they cannot be of service to you, as they are necessary for the making of my will, I implore you that all my statements, books of accounts, and other papers, which only relate to my private affairs, be returned to me and the rest of the money restored, so that I can put them in order, and leave the examination of them to those in my confidence and the executors of my will, to whom they may be of use after my death, as they will be to me now; that I may be sure of what I have to spend, what I can dispose of, or what I justly owe; not being able, without them, to make use of Nau's extracts alone, he being a prisoner, unless I had liberty to communicate with him, or, at the least, by writing to receive information from him concerning several special (points) on which I require to be enlightened. I let Messrs. Paulet and Drue Drury know regarding certain points; and as they promised me to write, I have been expecting an answer since the 22nd of December, on which day they sent me some papers, with a line from my secretary Nau. (They), perhaps, not thinking it reasonable to trouble you with my last requests, I fear either that my letter has never been given to you, or that you did not wish to take the trouble to (read) it. The way in which I have been treated has perhaps led (them) to imagine that I meant to beg from you some great grace, and it may even have made them fear that, in the goodness of your heart, this remonstrance would cause you some regrets at consigning one of your own blood, and quality united, to such straits. But, Madame, they need not fear such pusillanimity on the one side, and on the other you can remove from them all their dread of your too great sorrow, by telling them of my request; and as it is your intention only to gratify it at my death, the which has been granted them, they cannot blame you if, through a feeling of family duty, or at the least of Christian charity, you grant burial for my body.