Here, on October 25th, the commissioners again met; and
one of them alone, Lord Zouch, dissented from the verdict by which Mary
was found guilty of having, since the 1st of June preceding, compassed
and imagined divers matters tending to the destruction of Elizabeth.
This verdict was conveyed to her, about three weeks later, by Lord
Buckhurst and Robert Beale, clerk of the privy council. At the
intimation that her life was an impediment to the security of the
received religion, "she seemed with a certain unwonted alacrity to
triumph, giving God thanks, and rejoicing in her heart that she was held
to be an instrument" for the restoration of her own faith. This note of
exultation as in martyrdom was maintained with unflinching courage to
the last. She wrote to Elizabeth and the Duke of Guise two letters of
almost matchless eloquence and pathos, admirable especially for their
loyal and grateful remembrance of all her faithful servants. Between the
date of these letters and the day of her execution wellnigh three months
of suspense elapsed.
Elizabeth, fearless almost to a fault in face of physical danger,
constant in her confidence even after discovery of her narrow escape
from the poisoned bullets of household conspirators, was cowardly even
to a crime in face of subtler and more complicated peril.
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