it, which Essex readily granted.
Essex laid his head upon the block, and it required three blows to
complete its severance from the body. When the deed was done, the
executioner took up the bleeding head, saying solemnly, as he held it,
"God save the queen."

There were but few spectators present at this dreadful scene, and they
were chiefly persons required to attend in the discharge of their
official duties. There was, however, one exception; it was that of a
courtier of high rank, who had long been Essex's inveterate enemy, and
who could not deny himself the savage pleasure of witnessing his rival's
destruction. But even the stern and iron-hearted officers of the Tower
were shocked at his appearing at the scaffold. They urged him to go
away, and not distress the dying man by his presence at such an hour.
The courtier yielded so far as to withdraw from the scaffold; but he
could not go far away. He found a place where he could stand unobserved
to witness the scene, at the window of a turret which overlooked the
court-yard.

CHAPTER XII.

THE CONCLUSION.

1600-1603

Question of Essex's guilt.--General opinion of mankind.--Elizabeth's
distress.--Fall of Essex's party.--Wounds of the heart.--Elizabeth's
efforts to recover her spirits.--Embassage from France.--A
conversation.--Thoughts of Essex.--Harrington.--The Countess of
Nottingham.--The ring.--The Countess of Nottingham's confession.--The
queen's indignation.--Bitter reminiscences.--The queen removes to
Richmond.--Elizabeth grows worse.--The private chapel and the
closets.--The wedding ring.--The queen's friends abandon her.--The
queen's voice fails.--She calls her council together.--The
chaplains.--The prayers.--The queen's death.--King James
proclaimed.--Portrait of James the First.--Burial of the
queen.--Westminster Abbey.--Its history.--The Poet's Corner.--Henry
the Seventh's Chapel.--Elizabeth's monument.--James.--Mary's
monument.--Feelings of visitors.--Summary of Elizabeth's character.

There can be no doubt that Essex was really guilty of the treason for
which he was condemned, but mankind have generally been inclined to
consider Elizabeth rather than him as the one really accountable, both
for the crime and its consequences. To elate and intoxicate, in the
first place, an ardent and ambitious boy, by flattery and favors, and
then, in the end, on the occurrence of real or fancied causes of
displeasure, to tease and torment so sensitive and im