ended to be full of the warmest affection for her cousin; she
contrived plot after plot, and scheme after scheme, to ensnare her; and
when, at last, the execution took place, in obedience to her own formal
and written authority, she pretended to great astonishment and rage. She
never meant that the sentence should take effect. She filled England,
France, and Scotland with the loud expressions of her regret, and she
punished the agents who had executed her will. This management was to
prevent the friends of Mary from forming plans of revenge.

This was her character in all things. She was famous for her false
pretensions and double dealings, and yet, with all her talents and
sagacity, the disguise she assumed was sometimes so thin and transparent
that her assuming it was simply ridiculous.

Maiden ladies, who spend their lives, in some respects, alone, often
become deeply imbued with a kind and benevolent spirit, which seeks its
gratification in relieving the pains and promoting the happiness of all
around them. Conscious that the circumstances which have caused them to
lead a single life would secure for them the sincere sympathy and the
increased esteem of all who know them, if delicacy and propriety allowed
them to be expressed, they feel a strong degree of self-respect, they
live happily, and are a continual means of comfort and joy to all around
them. This was not so, however, with Elizabeth. She was jealous,
petulant, irritable. She envied others the love and the domestic
enjoyments which ambition forbade her to share, and she seemed to take
great pleasure in thwarting and interfering with the plans of others for
securing this happiness.

One remarkable instance of this kind occurred. It seems she was
sometimes accustomed to ask the young ladies of the court--her maids of
honor--if they ever thought about being married, and they, being cunning
enough to know what sort of an answer would please the queen always
promptly denied that they did so. Oh no! they never thought about being
married at all. There was one young lady, however, artless and sincere,
who, when questioned in this way, answered, in her simplicity, that she
often thought of it, and that she should like to be married very much,
if her father would only consent to her union with a certain gentleman
whom she loved. "Ah!" said Elizabeth; "well, I will speak to your father
about it, and see what I can do." Not long after this the father of the
young lad