commendation of marriage, if properly offered, from whatever quarter
it may come. The queen, in this instance, returned what was called a
very gracious reply. She, however, very decidedly refused the request.
She said that, as they had been very respectful in the form of their
petition, and as they had confined it to general terms, without
presuming to suggest either a person or a time, she would not take
offense at their well-intended suggestion, but that she had no design of
ever being married. At her coronation, she was married, she said, to her
people, and the wedding ring was upon her finger still. Her people were
the objects of all her affection and regard. She should never have any
other spouse. She said she should be well contented to have it engraved
upon her tomb-stone, "Here lies a queen who lived and died a virgin."

This answer silenced the Commons, but it did not settle the question in
the public mind. Cases often occur of ladies saying very positively
that they shall never consent to be married, and yet afterward altering
their minds; and many ladies, knowing how frequently this takes place,
sagaciously conclude that, whatever secret resolutions they may form,
they will be silent about them, lest they get into a position from which
it will be afterward awkward to retreat. The princes of the Continent
and the nobles of England paid no regard to Elizabeth's declaration, but
continued to do all in their power to obtain her hand.

One or two years afterward Elizabeth was attacked with the small-pox,
and for a time was dangerously sick, in fact, for some days her life was
despaired of, and the country was thrown into a great state of confusion
and dismay. Parties began to form--the Catholics for Mary Queen of
Scots, and the Protestants for the family of Jane Grey. Every thing
portended a dreadful contest. Elizabeth, however, recovered; but the
country had been so much alarmed at their narrow escape, that Parliament
ventured once more to address the queen on the subject of her marriage.
They begged that she would either consent to that measure, or, if she
was finally determined not to do that, that she would cause a law to be
passed, or an edict to be promulgated, deciding beforehand who was
really to succeed to the throne in the event of her decease.

Elizabeth would not do either. Historians have speculated a great deal
upon her motives; all that is certain is the fact, she would not do
either.

[Illustrat