Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-01-14

posed to Elizabeth as fit prison
place for Mary, but had been, one by
one rejected by Elizabeth. Some
were places not strong enough; 9TH
ers were not large enough for the tri-
al. Eventually, Fothringay had been
chosen, because it was strong and
roomy.
But to return to the prisoner of
Fotheringay. Mary's protests were
loud against being considered a Grim
inal, subject to English jurisdiction,
or, indeed, as born queen, against
being subject to any human jnrisdic-
ton at all. She had come to Eng
land, she said, proudly, for succor,
and had been detained as prisoner.
She was next in the succession; and
as the laws of the country had been
no protection to her, she would not
be answerable to them. She would
rather die a thousand deaths than
prejudice her rank, her royal blood,
and right of her son, and set so poor
a precedent to other princes as to ac-
knowledge herself subject. But
before one tribunal only, the Parlia-
ment of England, would she consent
to stand, and before that she had al
ways desired to defend herself.
Upon this defiance Cecil ANNOUNCE
ed his intention of at once proceeding
with the trial, whether she remained
cotumacious or not, and Mary then
consented to attend if the court would
allow her to protest. The trial took
place in the chamber Of presence in
the castle, great room sixty feet
long, at the upper end of which was
chair of state with canopy, repre-
senting the majesty of the throne.
There were benches on either side.
On the right sat the Chancellor, Lord
Burleigh, nine earls, and a viscount i;
on the left were thirteen barons.
Below these two ranks of benches
ranged the privy councillors, includ-
ing Sir Christopher Hatton and Wal
singham and Saddler, who had held
Mary Stuart in his arms Gas Mr..
Froude notes. when she was a baby.
In front of the earls were the two
chief justices, the chief baron, and
four Of the judges. The attorney
and solicitor-general were at small
table Immediately under the vacant
chair of state, and in the center of
the room sat the Queen of Scots,
plainly dressed in gray.
In the course of this trial it was
proved by Babington's own confess
sion and by the confessions of Boil
lard the Jesuit, and Savage, one of
the young court gallants, who had
undertaken the assassination of Eliz-
abeth, that Mary Stuart had urged
forward and, in every way, warmly
abetted the plot. Mary resolutely de-
MED that she had ever written to
Darlington, though her own letter to
him in cypher was produced in court.
With infinite art Mary held out
hopes of her own conversion to Prot
estantism; she insinuated that the
Puritans had invented the charges
against her for political purposes ;
and lastly, she refused to submit to
the judgment of the prejudiced court,
and demanded in queenly way, that
as a princess, her simple denial should
be believed. Firm, bold and I'M
daunted, she charged the venerable
Burleigh with being cher adversary, 3"
as she had before limited that Wal
singham had, perhaps, forged her
supposed letter to Darlington.
Burleigh retorted with the dignity
of an old statesman, 81 am an adj
versary to Queen Elizabeth's adver-
saries," and went on with crushing
calmness to prove from this deceit
full woman's own letters that she had
offered to surrender her right in Eng
land to Philip of Spain; and in 9
letter to Mendoza, his minister, had
used those fatal words relative to the
Darlington assassination plot: "I1
my purpose is known, my friends IL
England are lost to US forever We
see in these words of Mary that same
falsity that years after brought hel
grandson also to the scaffold. She
listened scornfully to these terrible
proofs, and still demanding to bt
heard by an English parliament, Of
to speak in person to the queen, rose
with dignity and left the room. Hith
erto she had trusted to Elizabeth
vacillation, and had shown no sense
of danger. She had been anxious
to know from Poulett, her keeper
who this lord was, and who that, crit
icized the judges, noted who spok
little and who much, and observed
casually,as Paulett wrote to Walsing
ham, the arch-detector of all her plots
that English history was bloody his
tory, She little knew how near th
axe was for, at the next sitting, th
commissioners Cincludipg some o
her own secret abbettors} at one
found her guilty. not only as accesso
~ and privy to the conspiracy, bu
as the actual "imaginer and compass
er of her majesty's destruction
The danger was imminent. Eliza
beth felt she was surrounded, ever
In the presence chamber, as the Bah
ington conspiracy had shown wit
secret Catholic assassins; alread
Philip had ordered squadron to b
equipped against England, at Lisbon