t they might have more frequent conferences together before
his intended departure for France; but observing that he was watched
and guarded, he made his escape, and gave the alarm to the other
conspirators. They all took to flight, covered themselves with several
disguises, and lay concealed in woods or barns; but were soon discovered
and thrown into prison. In their examinations they contradicted each
other, and the leaders were obliged to make a full confession of the
truth. Fourteen were condemned and executed, of whom seven, acknowledged
the crime on their trial; the rest were convicted by evidence.

The lesser conspirators being despatched, measures were taken for the
trial and conviction of the queen of Scots; on whose account, and with
whose concurrence, these attempts had been made against the life of
the queen, and the tranquillity of the kingdom. Some of Elizabeth's
counsellors were averse to this procedure, and thought that the close
confinement of a woman who was become very sickly, and who would
probably put a speedy period to their anxiety by her natural death,
might give sufficient security to the government without attempting
a measure of which there scarcely remains any example in history.
Leicester advised that Mary should be secretly despatched by poison;
and he sent a divine to convince Walsingham of the lawfulness of
that action: but Walsingham declared his abhorrence of it; and still
insisted, in conjunction with the majority of the counsellors, for the
open trial of the queen of Scots. The situation of England, and of the
English ministers, had, indeed, been hitherto not a little dangerous. No
successor of the crown was declared; but the heir of blood, to whom the
people in general were likely to adhere, was, by education, an enemy to
the national religion; was, from multiplied provocations, an enemy to
the ministers and principal nobility; and their personal safety, as well
as the safety of the public, seemed to depend alone on the queen's
life, who was now somewhat advanced in years. No wonder, therefore, that
Elizabeth's counsellors, knowing themselves to be so obnoxious to the
queen of Scots, endeavored to push every measure to extremities against
her; and were even more anxious than the queen herself, to prevent her
from ever mounting the throne of England.

Though all England was acquainted with the detection of Babington's
conspiracy, every avenue to the queen of Scots had been so strictly