God preserve your majesty," she said;
"you will find me as true a subject to your majesty as any; whatever
has been reported of me, you shall not find it otherwise."

"You will not confess," the queen said; "you stand to your truth: I
pray God it may so fall out."

"If it does not," said Elizabeth, "I desire neither favour nor pardon
at your hands."

"Well," Mary bitterly answered, "you persevere in your truth stiffly;
belike you will not confess that you have been wrongly punished?"

"I must not say so, your majesty," Elizabeth replied.

"Belike you will to others?" said the queen.

"No, please your majesty," answered the princess. "I have borne the
burden, and I must bear it. I pray your majesty to have a good opinion
of me, and to think me your true subject, not only from the beginning
but while life lasteth."

The queen did not answer, she muttered only in Spanish, "_Sabe Dios_,"
"God knows," and Elizabeth withdrew.[482]

[Footnote 482: Foxe; Holinshed.]

It was said that, during the interview, Philip was concealed {p.217}
behind a curtain, anxious for a sight of the captive damsel whose
favour with the people was such a perplexity to him.

At this time, Elizabeth was beautiful; her haughty features were
softened by misfortune; and as it is certain that Philip, when he left
England, gave special directions for her good treatment, so it is
possible that he may have envied the fortune which he intended for the
Prince of Savoy; and the scheme which he afterwards attempted to
execute, of making her his own wife on the queen's death, may have
then suggested itself to him as a solution of the English difficulty.
The magnificent girl, who was already the idol of the country, must
have presented an emphatic contrast with the lean, childless, haggard,
forlorn Mary; and he may easily have allowed his fancy to play with a
pleasant temptation. If it was so, Philip was far too careless of the
queen's feelings to conceal his own. If it was not so, the queen's
haunting consciousness of her unattractiveness must have been
aggravated by the disappointment of her hopes, and she may have
tortured herself with jealousy and suspicion.

At all events, Mary could not overcome her aversion. Elizabeth was set
at liberty, but she was not allowed to remain at the court. She
returned to Ashridge, to be pursued, even there, with petty
annoyances. Her first step when she was again at home was to send for
her frie