n. With the exception of Mary Seton, who, on
account of illness, had withdrawn to a convent in France, they
accepted, for the sake of supporting and comforting her, even the
anguish of witnessing her execution.

The attendants of Queen Elizabeth, on the other hand, detested her.
When, in her age and ugliness, she would no longer look in a glass,
it is said they used to amuse themselves with powdering her cheeks,
and rouging her nose. Elizabeth, as a woman, no doubt hated Mary for
her fascinations more than, as a queen, she feared her for her
political pretensions; and, in spite of every justifying argument, it
must be said, that she treated her with cruel treachery. In their
earlier days, Elizabeth sent Mary a most rare diamond ring as a
pledge of her friendship, and accompanied it with earnest promises of
aid and sympathy. Aubrey describes this ring as consisting of
separate parts, which, united, formed the device of two right hands
supporting a heart between them, the heart itself being composed of
two diamonds held together by a spring. The Queen of Scots, in her
final distress, dispatched this token to Elizabeth by a trusty
messenger, and in return was ordered to the block. Mrs. Jameson
eloquently thinks, we must feel that the scale was set even, when we
remember how Mary was loved, how Elizabeth was hated, and died at
last in loneliness, writhing on the floor like a crushed spider.
However much to be regretted, it is yet natural that the powerful
facts and logic of the later historians, like Froude, should find our
prejudices so stubbornly set in favor of Mary, and against Elizabeth.
They will change slowly; but I suppose they must, in a large degree,
change. Sarah Jennings, famous as that Duchess of Marlborough whom
Pope so fearfully satirized under the name of Atossa, having been
selected as lady in waiting of Queen Anne, was immediately taken to
her bosom. The queen asked no subserviency: "Afriend is what I most
want," she said. They laid aside all titles, and addressed each other
as equals under the assumed names of Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Morley.
This lackadaisical relation subsisted for several years. At length
Mrs. Morley and Mrs. Freeman disappeared in the Queen and the
Duchess. The familiarity and arrogance of "Queen Sarah" became
insufferable to Queen Anne, and the quondam friends parted as
irreconcilable foes. Swift says of Queen Anne, that she "had not a
sufficient stock of amity for more than one person