or
sending him back again to his prison in the Tower.

Mary was immediately afraid that the malcontents would join with
Elizabeth and attempt to put forward her name and her claims to the
crown, which, if they were to do, it would make their movement very
formidable. She was impressed immediately with the idea that it was of
great importance to get Elizabeth back again into her power. The most
probable way of succeeding in doing this, she thought, was to write her
a kind and friendly letter, inviting her to return. She accordingly
wrote such a letter. She said in it that certain evil-disposed persons
were plotting some disturbances in the kingdom, and that she thought
that Elizabeth was not safe where she was. She urged her, therefore, to
return, saying that she should be truly welcome, and should be protected
against all danger if she would come.

An invitation from a queen is a command, and Elizabeth would have felt
bound to obey this summons, but she was sick when it came. At least she
was _not well_, and she was not much disposed to underrate her sickness
for the sake of being able to travel on this occasion. The officers of
her household made out a formal certificate to the effect that Elizabeth
was not able to undertake such a journey.

In the mean time Wyatt's rebellion broke out; he marched to London, was
entrapped there and taken prisoner, as is related at length in the last
chapter. In his confessions he implicated the Princess Elizabeth, and
also Courteney, and Mary's government then determined that they must
secure Elizabeth's person at all events, sick or well. They sent,
therefore, three gentlemen as commissioners, with a troop of horse to
attend them, to bring her to London. They carried the queen's litter
with them, to bring the princess upon it in case she should be found
unable to travel in any other way.

This party arrived at Ashridge at ten o'clock at night. They insisted on
being admitted at once into the chamber of Elizabeth, and there they
made known their errand. Elizabeth was terrified; she begged not to be
moved, as she was really too sick to go. They called in some physicians,
who certified that she could be moved without danger to her life. The
next morning they put her upon the litter, a sort of covered bed, formed
like a palanquin, and borne, like a palanquin, by men. It was
twenty-nine miles to London, and it took the party four days to reach
the city, they moved so slowly. This circu