sador to London, saw matters
too near at hand to be deceived as to their course: accordingly, at
the first rumour which came to him of bringing Mary Stuart to trial,
he wrote to King Henry III, that he might intervene in the prisoner's
favour. Henry III immediately despatched to Queen Elizabeth an embassy
extraordinary, of which M. de Bellievre was the chief; and at the same
time, having learned that James VI, Mary's son, far from interesting
himself in his mother's fate, had replied to the French minister,
Courcelles, who spoke to him of her, "I can do nothing; let her drink
what she has spilled," he wrote him the following letter, to decide the
young prince to second him in the steps he was going to take:

"21st November, 1586.

"COURCELLES, I have received your letter of the 4th October last, in
which I have seen the discourse that the King of Scotland has held with
you concerning what you have witnessed to him of the good affection
I bear him, discourse in which he has given proof of desiring to
reciprocate it entirely; but I wish that that letter had informed me
also that he was better disposed towards the queen his mother, and that
he had the heart and the desire to arrange everything in a way to assist
her in the affliction in which she now is, reflecting that the prison
where she has been unjustly detained for eighteen years and more has
induced her to lend an ear to many things which have been proposed to
her for gaining her liberty, a thing which is naturally greatly desired
by all men, and more still by those who are born sovereigns and rulers,
who bear being kept prisoners thus with less patience. He should also
consider that if the Queen of England, my good sister, allows herself
to be persuaded by the counsels of those who wish that she should stain
herself with Queen Mary's blood, it will be a matter which will bring
him to great dishonour, inasmuch as one will judge that he will have
refused his mother the good offices that he should render her with the
said Queen of England, and which would have perhaps been sufficient to
move her, if he would have employed them, as warmly, and as soon as his
natural duty commanded him. Moreover, it is to be feared for him, that,
his mother dead, his own turn may come, and that one may think of doing
as much for him, by some violent means, to make the English succession
easier to seize for those who are likely to have it after the said Queen
Elizabeth, and not only to