Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/76

56 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. confinement and the suppression of her correspondence, Mary Stuart experienced no further inconvenience. Buchanan's ' Detectio ' was published ; Elizabeth an- nounced at last that she could never more be restored to Scotland, and she was publicly termed 'the late Queen ; ' but there was no talk of bringing her to trial as well as the Duke ; no private assassins came down to Sheffield to do the work which but for English inter- ference would have been completed at Lochleven ; and at last, at Christmas, just before Norfolk was brought to the bar, she tried the effect of a letter, in the hope of saving him. Notwithstanding the wrongs which she had suffered, she said, she could not forget that Elizabeth was her nearest relative, who had once seemed to love her. She had listened, poor fool that she was, and had laid herself open to be injured through her confidence, and she had been rewarded with slander and imprisonment. She had said from the first, that if the Queen of England would not help her, she would seek assistance elsewhere ; she had but kept her word, and had done no wrong in keeping it. But she had wished to be Elizabeth's friend, and she wished it still. She was ready still to forget and forgive all her injuries if Elizabeth would restrain her anger and hurt no one on her account ; she would be glad if they might be reconciled before the convulsion which was approaching in England burst out, and it was too late. ' Do not think I flatter you, out of fear for myself/ she said. ' You may make a dishonourable profit out of my life, if you please to take it from me ; but n>y heart is my