hs, they left things
just as they found them.

The last eighteen years of Mary's life were spent in imprisonment, and
are comparatively a blank in her personal history. She was transported,
at intervals, from castle to castle, and was intrusted sometimes to the
charge of one nobleman, and sometimes to another; but for her the active
scenes of life were past; the splendor and dignity of a throne were to
be enjoyed no longer; the sceptre of her native country was never more
to grace her hands; her will ceased to influence a nation; her voice did
not travel beyond the walls that witnessed her confinement. She came
into England at the age of twenty-five, in the prime of womanhood, the
full vigor of health, and the rapidly ripening strength of her
intellectual powers. She was there destined to feel, in all its
bitterness, that "hope deferred maketh the heart sick." Year after year
passed slowly on, and year after year her spirits became more exhausted,
her health feebler, and her doubts and fears confirmed, till they at
length settled in despair. Premature old age overtook her before she was
past the meridian of life; and for some time before her death, her hair
was white "with other snows than those of age." Yet, during the whole of
this long period, amid sufferings which would have broken many a
masculine spirit, and which, even in our own times, have been seen to
conquer those who had conquered empires, Mary retained the innate grace
and dignity of her character, never forgetting that she had been born a
queen, or making her calamities an excuse for the commission of any
petty meanness, which she would have scorned in the days of her
prosperity. Full of incident as her previous life had been, brilliant in
many of its achievements, it may be doubted whether the forbearance,
fortitude, and magnanimity displayed in her latter years, do not redound
more highly to her praise than all that preceded. Elizabeth wished for
some plausible pretext to take away the life of the unhappy Mary, whom,
though so defenceless, she regarded as a dangerous rival. The Duke of
Norfolk made offers of marriage to Mary, to which she consented, in case
she should be liberated. His scheme also was to favor the Catholic
cause, and on its being discovered he was thrown into prison, where,
after six months' confinement, he was liberated, on condition of his
holding no further intercourse with the queen. He was, however, arrested
the second time, and exe