Bourgoing's Journal thus records this day: "Thursday the 26th Her Majesty was brought back to Chartley with a great company, after being strictly detained at the place of Tiqueshal; she was welcomed by each one of us, anxious to show our devotion, not without tears on both sides, and the same day she visited us, one after the other, as one who returns home." Then he adds briefly: "After that the tears were over (Her Majesty) found nothing to say except about the papers which had been taken away, as has been related above."[11] But here Paulet's correspondence with Walsingham gives us further details, in which he describes the Queen's very just indignation at the manner in which her drawers and cabinets had been ransacked and every paper carried off. Then, turning to Paulet, she said that there were two things which he could not take from her—her royal blood and her religion, "which both she would keep until her death."
Early in September Paulet received orders to take possession of all the Queen's money. Bourgoing gives a long account of the way in which the commission was executed. Mary was ill in bed, but Paulet insisted on seeing her. He and Mr. Baquet[12] entered her apartment, leaving his son and a good number of other gentlemen and servants, all armed, in the anteroom. Paulet sent all the ladies and servants out of her room, "which made us all anxious," says Bourgoing, "not knowing what to expect from such an unusual proceeding and being unaccustomed to such words. The best I could do was to keep myself by the door, under the pretext that Her Majesty was alone, and two men with her, (where I remained) very sad and thoughtful." In the end Gervais, the surgeon, was also permitted to remain along with Bourgoing. When Paulet informed Mary that he must have her money, she at first absolutely refused to give it up. When at last Elspeth Curle had, at the Queen's bidding, opened the door of her cabinet, the Queen, "all alone in her room, which no one (of us) dared approach, and guarded by Sir Amyas's people, rose from her bed, crippled as she was, and without slipper or shoe followed them, dragging herself as well as she could to her cabinet, and told them that this money which they were taking was money which she had long put aside as a last resource for the time when she should die, both for her funeral expenses and to enable her attendants to return each to his own country after her death." Mary pleaded for some time, but Sir Amyas, while assuring her she should want for nothing, refused to leave her any of the money.
Some days later Sir Amyas again visited the Queen, and interrogated her at length regarding her knowledge of Babington and the conspiracy, concluding by saying "that she would be spoken to more fully about it, as it was necessary that the whole thing should be cleared up. From this Her Majesty took occasion to think she would be examined, but no one imagined this would be in the manner we shall hereafter see."[13]
About 15th September Paulet began to speak to Mary of the intended move to Fotheringay; he did not tell her the name of the place, but said that it would be very beneficial for her health to move from Chartley, and that she should be taken to one of the Queen's castles situated thirty miles from London. He also informed Mary that he now understood why her money had been taken from her. He perceived, he said, that it was for fear she should give it away or use it for some dangerous purpose on the road, and he had been assured she would receive it back when she should reach her journey's end. The Queen was quite willing to leave Chartley, and was anxious to take the journey before her indisposition should increase. Bourgoing thus continues:—
"From now they commenced to prepare the luggage and everything for the departure which was fixed for the Tuesday following, the 20th of the said month, but was deferred till the next day on account of the change in the appointed lodging, which was supposed to be Worcester or else Chazfort (?); but both were changed and Fotheringay was chosen, a castle of the (English) Queen's in Northamptonshire.... Of all these things we were only told secretly, and Her Majesty never knew for certain where they were taking her, not even on the day she reached her new dwelling, but used to think sometimes they were taking her one way, sometimes another. Before starting in the morning they would tell her whether she had a long or a short journey to make, sometimes the number of miles, but they would never tell her the place where she was to sleep that night."
On the Monday before the party left Chartley, Sir Thomas Gorges and Stallenge (Usher of Parliament) arrived "with their pistols in their belts." This arrival caused anxiety among Mary's followers, who were only reassured when they observed that Gorges and Stallenge addressed her more courteously than they expected.
"The following Wednesday, which was St. Matthew's Day (21st September), Her Majesty being ready to start, the doors of all the rooms were locked where her servants were, who were to remain behind, and the windows were guarded for fear that they should speak to her, or even see her." Mary was carried to her coach, as she was still unable to walk. As the Queen started, Sir Thomas Gorges, who, together with Stallenge, accompanied the party, accosted her, and informed her that he had something to say to her from his mistress. "I pray God," replied Mary, "that the message is better and more agreeable than the one you recently brought me." To which Gorges answered, "I am but a servant." "With this Her Majesty was content, telling him that she could not consider him to blame."[14] It was not till the next day that the message was delivered.
The Queen and her escort spent the first night at Burton,[15] and the next morning before starting, Mary, who had been in great anxiety to know what he had to say, sent for Sir Thomas. The message, in part similar to the previous one, was to the effect that Elizabeth was utterly surprised that Mary should have planned such enterprises, and even to have hands laid on her who was an anointed Queen. Gorges swore that his mistress had never been so astonished or distressed by anything that had ever happened. "My mistress knows well," he said, "that if your Majesty were sent to Scotland, you would not be in safety; your subjects there would do you an ill turn; and she would have been esteemed a fool had she sent you to France without any reason."
To this Mary replied very fully, declaring that she had never planned anything against the Queen of England or the State. "I am not so base," said she, "as to wish to cause the death or to lay hands on an anointed Queen like myself, and I have comported myself towards her as was my duty." Mary remarked that she had several times warned Elizabeth of things to her advantage, and then reverted to her own long imprisonment, and her many sufferings. "If all the Christian prelates, my relations, friends, and allies," continued she, "moved by pity, and having compassion for my fate, have made it their duty to comfort and aid me in my misery and captivity, I, seeing myself destitute of all help, could not do less than throw myself into their arms and trust to their mercy, but, however, I do not know what were their designs, nor what they would have undertaken, nor what were their intentions. I have no part with this, and have not been the least in the world mixed up in it. If they have planned anything, let her (Elizabeth) look to them; they must answer for it, not I. The Queen of England," concluded Mary, "knows well that I have warned her to look to herself and her Council, and that perchance foreign kings and princes might undertake something against her, upon which she replied that she was well assured of both foreigners and her own subjects, and that she did not require my advice."[16]
Gorges' only reply was that he prayed God this was true, but he showed Mary every courtesy by the way, "as well for her lodgings as for requisite commodities for the journey." Nothing of any importance occurred during the remainder of the journey, and on 25th September the party reached Fotheringay.