“Thursday, 15th September.—Paulet sent to warn her that it would be for the benefit of her health and for her convenience, and also because she had wished it, the house of Chartley being unhealthy, that she move to another house belonging to the Queen of England thirty miles from London, where she would be very well, and she might prepare herself to go there when it pleased her. He would give her back her money when she got to her destination. (He never did so.) She desired nothing else, ill though she was, and would rather go soon for fear of becoming worse. In two or three days she would be ready to set out. From that time we began to pack up and prepare for the departure, which would be on Tuesday following, the twentieth of the month. It was ultimately fixed for to-morrow, because of the appointed house being changed and Fotheringay, a castle of the Queen of England, substituted, so that it was necessary to give fresh orders to the carters, who had set out for another place. These things were told secretly and not very assuredly. The Queen was never quite sure where they would take her, not even the last day, when she arrived at her new quarters. Before setting out in the morning they usually told her whether she would have a long or a short journey, sometimes how many miles. They never would tell her the place where she was to remain over night. When they were preparing for their departure Paulet told the Queen of a request from Bastian to get some reward and some money for his journey, not only for himself but for the other servants: those who were in the house as well as for Melville and Prean, who were some miles away. Her Majesty refused flatly to allow Paulet to distribute her money, requesting them to give it to her that she might dispose of it at her pleasure; she would not make him her treasurer, fearing the consequences. After some debate she gave in and asked them to send two hundred crowns to be distributed by Paulet. Paulet said he would give what she wished to each with a receipt, but was resolute that she was not to touch any money. At last she was constrained to make a memorandum written by her own hand and signed, that Bastian should have forty crowns, Curle thirty-six, and Baltazare ten; also ten to Nicholas, Laurence, and Charles; to Henry his entire wages of twenty crowns and thirty shillings, and to Elizabeth Butler, laundry maid, twenty crowns, and to Alice Sharp and Alice Forster forty shillings each, letting it be known that what she did was by constraint and for pity. Should her servants be in danger of want or unprovided with money for the journey, she would recommend them for the rest to the French Ambassador, who would give them sufficient to complete their journey to France, where they would be paid their wages and have each a fitting reward. I have been informed that the money was not given for a long time thereafter.
“19th September.—Sir Thomas Gorges, a gentleman pensioner of Elizabeth, who had led away Nau and Curle as prisoners, arrived by post horse with Stallenge, Usher of Parliament, with their pistols at their belt. We thought they had come for some evil purpose, and we were only assured on Wednesday when we saw them speak to Her Majesty more courteously than we expected. The Wednesday following, which was St. Matthew's Day, 21st September, the Queen being ready to set out, all the doors of the rooms where the servants were were shut, for fear they might speak to her or see her. She went by carriage, not being able to go on horseback, and sat with her back to the coachman, partly for comfort and partly because of her demoiselles and things required on the journey, which were in the back part of the carriage; and partly to see better what was going on behind her, thinking if they wished to do her harm she would see the blow coming; besides, she could speak to her coachman and ask what they were doing.
“On setting out from Chartley she was escorted by Gorges, who with Stallenge were charged to do so because Paulet could only travel by coach; and there was also their safety on the road. These men took the lead of several others (spies), and there were about two hundred horse. Each horseman wore the livery of his master; none of them had bows, few had harquebuses, while most had swords and daggers. One-half were in front, the other half behind. In the middle the Queen and her servants, and near her Paulet in his coach, his wife and family in another; his people, his servants and horsemen, surrounding the company, all with harquebuses and lighted torches and a couple of pistols at the saddle. Gorges travelled at the side of the Queen's carriage. He said he had something to tell her from his mistress. She said she prayed God that his message might be better and more agreeable than the last. He answered that he was merely a servant, on which she was content, telling him that she did not blame him. After this there was little intercourse on the way until she dismounted at Burton in Staffordshire. Having conducted her to her room, Gorges said he wished to speak to her, but feared to trouble her, she being tired with the journey.”
CHAPTER VIII
Gorges again attacks Mary about Elizabeth's life—Mary's sharp response, and Gorges silenced—Procession sets out from Burton and reaches Hill Hall Castle; next day it reaches Leicester—People there hostile to Paulet—Arrival at Fotheringay—Mary's dissatisfaction with it—Interview with Paulet—Paulet and Elizabeth's insolence—Arrival of the commissioners—They attend prayers—Elizabeth's insolent letter to Mary—Mary's interview with Mildmay, Paulet, and others, official report—Elizabeth's reply—Lord Chancellor and commissioners visit Mary in her chamber—Burghley's overbearing attitude and speech—She refuses to recognise their authority—The second interview, when she is too many for them—Third interview, when Mary delivers an eloquent speech in her defence and exposes the duplicity and false character of Elizabeth.
“Thursday, 22nd September 1586.—Her Majesty prepared to resume her journey. Being in great uneasiness, she sent to ask Gorges what he had to tell her: which was that Elizabeth thought it very strange, and would never have thought that she would have been accessory to those things which had been discovered against her, she being a relation and of the same rank. To think of laying hands on a consecrated Queen, Gorges said his mistress was never so astonished. She was so angry with what had happened that she knew well if she had sent Her Majesty into Scotland she would not have been safe and her subjects would have been against her. To have sent her to France, of which there was no intention, they would have thought her a fool. Her Majesty answered that she had never undertaken nor thought of undertaking anything against the Queen of England or her kingdom, and that she had not so little prudence as to wish to conspire against Elizabeth or put her hands upon a consecrated Queen. She knew not if Elizabeth had done like Saul. In place of thinking such a thing, she had cautioned her repeatedly of what she knew would be hurtful to her interests. But there were many people who had different schemes, so that if she would communicate with her, together they could put things in order, and by those means she would be assured. In this she had never been listened to but rather despised and ill-treated, not like a prisoner of her rank but like as if taken in war or even worse, as if they had the power of life and death or a right to torment and afflict her, taking away from her all the conveniences of life, so that she was without power to communicate with friends or relations, nobody whatever. She was shut up, kept under the order of a man without whose will she could do nothing. That he had been as strict with her as he could, not only as to her liberty and captivity, but concerning her eating and drinking, for herself and household. During her captivity the Queen of England had maintained, sustained, and aided her rebel subjects, alienated her son from her, taken away what she possessed, and even now had made a league with him separating her from him; and in this league she was forsaken and rejected like an abject and abandoned person, without comfort or hope and deprived of all her means. From then till now she had therefore not been able to communicate with anyone. If all the Christian primates her relations, friends, and allies, moved with pity and compassion for her ill fortune, had thought it their duty to compassionate her misery, she could not have done less than throw herself into their arms and put herself at their mercy. She knew none of their designs, what were their schemes, or what they intended to do. She did not mix herself up with these and had in no way mixed herself up in the world. And whatever they had done or intended to do, it was for them to answer, not her. That the Queen of England knew well that she had warned her to pay attention to her and her counsel, as perhaps the foreign kings and princes would undertake something for her benefit. Upon the whole the Queen of England answered her that it was all right as to foreigners and subjects, and she had only to do with her. There was no reply, except that Gorges answered that he prayed God that it might be so. Afterwards they only spoke twice on the way, Paulet doing his best to accommodate her on the road for lodging and commodities required on the journey. Having set out from Burton at 11 a.m. on Thursday, 22nd September, we arrived at Hill Hall Castle, Abbots Bromley, belonging to the Earl of Huntingdon, seven miles from Burton, where we remained for the night. Next day, 23rd September, we set out at 10 a.m. and arrived at Leicester, fifteen miles distant, where Her Majesty lodged at a hotel in the suburbs called 'the Angel.'
“The Corporation made Paulet a present of wine, but a feeling so hostile to him and his coadjutors was manifested by the people of Leicester that it was found necessary to hire three men to watch his coach lest it should be destroyed or carried off during the night. [18]
“On 24th September we set out about the same hour, and arrived pretty late in Rutlandshire at the house of Roger Smith.