s a blot on the
fame of Mary, which finds no parallel but in the treatment of the
ill-fated queen of Scots by Elizabeth.

Mary's treatment of Elizabeth has formed another subject of reproach,
though the grounds of it are not sufficiently made out; and, at all
events, many circumstances may be alleged in extenuation of her conduct.
She had seen her mother, the noble-minded Katharine, exposed to the most
cruel indignities, and compelled to surrender her bed and her throne to
an artful rival, the mother of Elizabeth. She had heard herself declared
illegitimate, and her right to the succession set aside in favor of her
younger sister. Even after her intrepid conduct had secured to her the
crown, she was still haunted by the same gloomy apparition. Elizabeth's
pretensions were constantly brought before the public; and Mary might
well be alarmed by the disclosure of conspiracy after conspiracy, the
object of which, it was rumored, was to seat her sister on the throne.
As she advanced in years, Mary had the further mortification of seeing
her rival gain on those affections of the people which had grown cool to
her. Was it wonderful that she should regard her sister, under these
circumstances, with feelings of distrust and aversion? That she did so
regard her is asserted by the Venetian minister; and it is plain that,
during the first years of Mary's reign, Elizabeth's life hung upon a
thread. Yet Mary had strength of principle sufficient to resist the
importunities of Charles the Fifth and his ambassador, to take the life
of Elizabeth, as a thing indispensable to her own safety and that of
Philip. Although her sister was shown to be privy, though not openly
accessory, to the grand rebellion under Wyatt, Mary would not constrain
the law from its course to do her violence. This was something, under
the existing circumstances, in an age so unscrupulous. After this storm
had passed over, Mary, whatever restraint she imposed on her real
feelings, treated Elizabeth, for the most part, with a show of kindness,
though her name still continued to be mingled, whether with or without
cause, with more than one treasonable plot.[60] Mary's last act--perhaps
the only one in which she openly resisted the will of her husband--was
to refuse to compel her sister to accept the hand of Philibert of Savoy.
Yet this act would have relieved her of the presence of her rival; and
by it Elizabeth would have forfeited her independent possession of the
c