counsellors dared to approach her; or if any had such temerity, she
chased them from her, with the most violent expressions of rage and
resentment; they had all of them been guilty of an unpardonable crime,
in putting to death her dear sister and kinswoman, contrary to her fixed
purpose,[*] of which they were sufficiently apprised and acquainted.

* Camden, p. 586. Strype, vol. iii. Append. p. 146. Jebb.
vol. ii p. 608

No sooner was her sorrow so much abated as to leave room for reflection,
than she wrote a letter of apology to the king of Scots, and sent it
by Sir Robert Cary, son of Lord Hunsdon. She there told him, that she
wished he knew but not felt, the unutterable grief which she experienced
on account of that lamentable accident which, without her knowledge,
much less concurrence, had happened in England: that as her pen trembled
when she attempted to write it, she found herself obliged to commit the
relation of it to the messenger her kinsman; who would likewise inform
his majesty of every circumstance attending this dismal and unlooked-for
misfortune: that she appealed to the supreme Judge of heaven and earth
for her innocence; and was also so happy amidst her other afflictions,
as to find, that many persons in her court could bear witness to her
veracity in this protestation: that she abhorred dissimulation; deemed
nothing more worthy of a prince than a sincere and open conduct; and
could never surely be esteemed so base and poor-spirited as that, if
she had really given orders for this fatal execution, she could on any
consideration be induced to deny them: that, though sensible of the
justice of the sentence pronounced against the unhappy prisoner, she
determined from clemency never to carry it into execution; and could not
but resent the temerity of those who on this occasion had disappointed
her intention: and that as no one loved him more dearly than herself,
or bore a more anxious concern for his welfare, she hoped that he
would consider every one as his enemy who endeavored, on account of the
present incident, to excite any animosity between them.[*]

In order the better to appease James, she committed Davison to prison,
and ordered him to be tried in the star chamber for his misdemeanor. The
secretary was confounded; and being sensible of the danger which
must attend his entering into a contest with the queen, he expressed
penitence for his error, and submitted very patiently to be railed