mitted, such as would have
brought out the different degrees of guilt, which varied in all the
seven.

A long speech was, however, made by the counsel for the Crown,
detailing the plot as it had been arranged for the public knowledge,
and reading aloud a letter from Babington to Queen Mary, describing his
plans both for her rescue and the assassination, saying, "he had
appointed six noble gentlemen for the despatch of the wicked
competitor."

Richard caught a look of astonishment on the unhappy young man's face,
but it passed into hopeless despondency, and the speech went on to
describe the picture of the conspirators and its strange motto,
concluding with an accusation that they meant to sack London, burn the
ships, and "cloy the ordnance."

A shudder of horror went through the assembly, and perhaps few except
Richard Talbot felt that the examination of the prisoners ought to have
been public. The form, however, was gone through of asking whether
they had cause to render wherefore they should not be condemned to die.

The first to speak was Ballard. His eyes glanced round with an
indomitable expression of scorn and indignation, which, as Diccon
whispered, he could have felt to his very backbone. It was like that
of a trapped and maimed lion, as the man sat in his chair with crushed
and racked limbs, but with a spirit untamed in its defiance.

"Cause, my Lords?" he replied. "The cause I have to render will not
avail here, but it may avail before another Judgment-seat, where the
question will be, who used the weapons of treason, not merely against
whom they were employed. Inquiry hath not been made here who suborned
the priest, Dr. Gifford, to fetch me over from Paris, that we might
together overcome the scruples of these young men, and lead them
forward in a scheme for the promotion of the true religion and the
right and lawful succession. No question hath here been put in open
court, who framed the conspiracy, nor for what purpose. No, my Lords;
it would baffle the end you would bring about, yea, and blot the
reputation of some who stand in high places, if it came to light that
the plot was devised, not by the Catholics who were to be the
instruments thereof, nor by the Lady in whose favour all was to be
done,--not by these, the mere victims, but by him who by a triumph of
policy thus sent forth his tempters to enclose them all within his
net--above all the persecuted Lady whom all true Catholics own as th