King of Scots' accession, therefore, were intensely
anxious to obtain her assent to their project.

The Delphic oracle remained obstinately silent. Neither grave
representations of necessity, nor coaxing, could induce her to open her
lips upon the subject; and as no living creature had ever taken
Elizabeth off her guard, there was no hope in that direction. The old
woman remembered too well the winter day, forty-five years before, when
the time-serving courtiers left the dying sister at Westminster, to pay
court to the living sister at Hatfield; and with the mixture of weakness
and shrewdness which characterised her, she refused to run the risk of
its repetition by any choice of a successor from the candidates for the
throne.

There were five living persons who could set up a reasonable claim, of
whom four were descendants of Henry the Seventh. They were all a long
way from the starting-point.

The first was the King of Scotland, son of Mary Queen of Scots, daughter
of James the Fifth, son of Princess Margaret of England, eldest daughter
of Henry the Seventh.

The second was the Lady Arbella Stuart, the only child of Lord Charles
Stuart, son of Lady Margaret Douglas, daughter of the same Princess
Margaret.

The third was Edward Seymour, son of Lady Katherine Grey, daughter of
Lady Frances Brandon, eldest daughter of Princess Mary, youngest
daughter of Henry the Seventh.

The fourth was Lady Anne Stanley, eldest daughter of Ferdinand Earl of
Derby, son of Lady Margaret Clifford, only daughter of Lady Eleanor
Brandon, second daughter of the same Princess Mary.

And the fifth was Sir Robert Basset of Umberleigh, son of Sir Arthur
Basset, son of Lady Frances Plantagenet, eldest daughter of Arthur Lord
Lisle, son of Edward the Fourth.

Of these five, the one who would have inherited the Crown, under the
will of Henry the Eighth, was unquestionably Edward Seymour; and, Mary
and Elizabeth being both now dead, the reversion fell to him also under
that of Edward the Sixth. But, strange to say, he was not a formidable
opponent of James of Scotland. Queen Elizabeth had been so deeply
offended with his mother (Lady Katherine Grey, sister of the beheaded
Lady Jane) for making a love-match without her royal licence, that she
had immured both bride and bridegroom in the Tower for years. Perhaps
the prestige of Elizabeth's will remained potent, even after Elizabeth
was dead; perhaps Edward Seymour had no wish to occupy