zabeth, therefore, who was an excellent hypocrite, pretended the
utmost reluctance to proceed to the execution of the sentence; affected
the most tender sympathy with her prisoner; displayed all her scruples
and difficulties; rejected the solicitation of her courtiers and
ministers; and affirmed that, were she not moved by the deepest concern
for her people's safety, she would not hesitate a moment in pardoning
all the injuries which she herself had received from the queen of Scots.

That the voice of her people might be more audibly heard in the demand
of justice upon Mary, she summoned a new parliament; and she knew, both
from the usual dispositions of that assembly, and from the influence
of her ministers over them, that she should not want the most earnest
solicitation to consent to that measure which was so agreeable to her
secret inclinations. She did not open this assembly in person, but
appointed for that purpose three commissioners, Bromley, the chancellor,
Burleigh, the treasurer, and the earl of Derby. The reason assigned
for this measure was, that the queen, foreseeing that the affair of the
queen of Scots would be canvassed in parliament, found her tenderness
and delicacy so much hurt by that melancholy incident, that she had not
the courage to be present while it was under deliberation, but withdrew
her eyes from what she could not behold without the utmost reluctance
and uneasiness. She was also willing, that, by this unusual precaution,
the people should see the danger to which her person was hourly exposed;
and should thence be more strongly incited to take vengeance on the
criminal, whose restless intrigues and bloody conspiracies had so long
exposed her to the most imminent perils.[*]

The parliament answered the queen's expectations: the sentence against
Mary was unanimously ratified by both houses, and an application
was voted to obtain Elizabeth's consent to its publication and
execution.[**] She gave an answer ambiguous, embarrassed; full of real
artifice, and seeming irresolution. She mentioned the extreme danger to
which her life was continually exposed; she declared her willingness to
die, did she not foresee the great calamities which would thence fall
upon the nation; she made professions of the greatest tenderness to
her people; she displayed the clemency of her temper, and expressed
her violent reluctance to execute the sentence against her unhappy
kinswoman; she affirmed, that the late law