“If you are furnished with money for this removal, and if not what sum you will require. There is now orders given for your man to receive £600 or £700 here at London. You are to decide how soon she should be removed.”
In continuation of this correspondence we have the following communication dated the succeeding day from Paulet to Walsingham referring to the removal of the Queen from Sir Walter Aston's house at Tixall to Chartley conducted by Sir Walter, Mr. Gresley, Mr. Chetwynd, and others; the Queen's visit to Curle's wife and baptizing Curle's child:—
“This lady was removed hither on the 25th of this month by Sir Walter Aston, Mr. Bagott, Mr. Gresley, Mr. Littleton, Mr. Chetwynd, and others to the number of one hundred and forty horses at the least. At the coming out of Sir Walter Aston's gate she said with a low voice, weeping, to some poor folks who were there assembled, 'I have nothing for you; I am a beggar as well as you; all is taken from me,' and when she came to the gentlemen she said, weeping, 'Good gentlemen, I am not witting or privy to anything intended against the Queen.' She visited Curle's wife (who was delivered of child in her absence) before she went to her own chamber, bidding her to be of good comfort, and that she would answer for her husband in all things that might be objected against him. Curle's child remaining unchristened, and the priest removed before the arrival of this lady, she desired that my minister might baptize the child with such godfathers and godmothers as I would procure, so as the child might bear her name. This being refused, she came shortly after into Curle's wife's chamber, and laying the child on her knee, she took water out of the basin, and casting it upon the face of the child said, 'Mary, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,' calling the child by her own name Mary. This may not be found strange in her who maketh no conscience to break the laws of God and man.
“At the coming hither Mr. Darell delivered the keys as well of her chamber as of her coffers to Bastian, which he refused by direction from his mistress, who required Mr. Darell to open her chamber door, which he did; and then this lady, finding that her papers were taken away, said in great choler that two things could not be taken from her: her English blood and her Catholic religion, which both she would keep until her death, adding further these words: 'Some of you will be sorry for it,' meaning the taking away of her papers. I was not present when these words were spoken, but no doubt they reached me, in what sense she only knoweth. I may be sorry for others, but I know there is nothing in her papers that can give me cause to be sorry for myself. I am deceived also that she is not hasty to see me or speak with me, only she sent to know if I would convey her letter to Her Majesty, which I refused, saying that no letters should pass out of this house without orders from above. She made the like request at Sir Walter Aston's house, which I also refused and desired your direction thereon. I received yours of the 25th, by which you continue to increase my joy by your report of Her Majesty's gracious acceptance of my unworthy services. God be thanked that so many of the principal conspirators are apprehended, and God make us thankful for his singular mercies.”
It is possible Paulet did not know of the interpolations on Queen Mary's letters. He was evidently outside the select circle which carried them out. The close of this letter would indicate that he, being outside of it, was convinced of the complicity of Mary in the Babington Plot. He never for a moment suspected the sincerity of Elizabeth.
When Mary reached Chartley from Tixall on 25th August she found her coffers and desks rifled and all her papers and jewels taken away. One cabinet in her bedroom, strange to say, had been overlooked, and it contained her money. Paulet wrote immediately to Walsingham, the result being that Paulet and Richard Bagot, a magistrate, on receipt of Walsingham's reply, rudely entered the presence of Mary, intimating that they were commanded to take her money, and advised her to deliver it up quietly. Mary emphatically refused to comply, and declared she would not give up the key. Paulet called his servants and told them to bring bars to break open the door. Seeing the uselessness of further resistance, she submitted, and saw him seize five rolls of canvas, containing five thousand French crowns, two leather bags, one having £104 in gold and the other £3 in silver; the silver he left with her. In Nau's chamber he found two bags, one with £900 and the other with £286, and a chain valued at £100. In Curle's chamber he found two canvas rolls each containing one thousand crowns; they were Queen Mary's gift to Mrs. Curle on her marriage. Paulet sealed and took possession of them in Elizabeth's name, and delivered them into Bagot's charge. [5]
This was another of the disreputable transactions carried out by Elizabeth's orders. The question may very naturally be asked, What right had she to break into lockfast places and seize the money and jewels, etc., of the Scottish Queen? If a subject behaved in this manner he would be immediately arrested and punished.
It is important at this crisis to know what letters passed between Paulet and Walsingham. We are in possession of only some of these, and the information they convey is that a gigantic scheme was progressing for the murder of the Scottish Queen, and that these men were the puppets of Elizabeth for accomplishing her design. What is obvious is that Paulet's letters were written with profound caution—almost terror—lest he should offend his mistress. His letters and his treatment of the Queen show that to her he was both cunning and false, alike destitute of the honour of a gentleman and of those feelings of humanity which are essential to a man intrusted with the delicate duty of custodian of a Queen. Only once did he show that he realised his responsibility, when in a letter to Walsingham of 30th August he desired to be relieved of his onerous duty. The letters were in the following terms:—