, the
pedantic style which was usual with her, and told them that she had seen
and read a great many books in her life, and a thousand more than others
of her sex and her rank were wont to, but that she had never found in
them a single example of a deed like that attempted on her--a deed
pursued by a relative, whom the king her brother could not and ought not
to support in her wickedness, when it was, on the contrary, his duty to
hasten the just punishment of it: then she added, addressing herself
specially to M. de Bellievre, and coming down again from the height of
her pride to a gracious countenance, that she greatly regretted he was
not deputed for a better occasion; that in a few days she would reply to
King Henry her brother, concerning whose health she was solicitous, as
well as that of the queen mother, who must experience such great fatigue
from the trouble she took to restore peace to her son's kingdom; and
then, not wishing to hear more, she withdrew into her room.

The envoys returned to London, where they awaited the promised reply; but
while they were expecting it unavailingly, they heard quietly the
sentence of death given against Queen Mary, which decided them to return
to Richmond to make fresh remonstrances to Queen Elizabeth. After two or
three fruitless journeys, they were at last, December 15th, admitted for
the second time to the royal presence.

The queen did not deny that the sentence had been pronounced, and as it
was easy to see that she did not intend in this case to use her right of
pardon, M. de Bellievre, judging that there was nothing to be done, asked
for a safe-conduct to return to his king: Elizabeth promised it to him
within two or three days.

On the following Tuesday, the 17th of the same month of December,
Parliament as well as the chief lords of the realm were convoked at the
Palace of Westminster, and there, in full court and before all, sentence
of death was proclaimed and pronounced against Mary Stuart: then this
same sentence, with great display and great solemnity, was read in the
squares and at the cross-roads of London, whence it spread throughout the
kingdom; and upon this proclamation the bells rang for twenty-four hours,
while the strictest orders were given to each of the inhabitants to light
bonfires in front of their houses, as is the custom in France on the Eve
of St. John the Baptist.

Then, amid this sound of bells, by the light of these bonfires, M. de
Bellievr