tributed afterwards to keep up these
delusions for the sake of terrifying the minds of men into an approval
of the deed of blood.

At length, on February 1st 1587, her majesty ordered secretary Davison
to bring her the warrant, which had remained ready drawn in his hands
for some weeks; and having signed it, she told him to get it sealed with
the great seal, and in his way to call on Walsingham and tell him what
she had done; "though," she added smiling, "I fear he will die of grief
when he hears of it;"--this minister being then sick. Davison obeyed her
directions, and the warrant was sealed. The next day he received a
message from her, purporting that he should forbear to carry the warrant
to the lord keeper till further orders. Surprised and perplexed, he
immediately waited upon her to receive her further directions; when she
chid him for the haste he had used in this matter, and talked in a
fluctuating and undetermined manner respecting it which greatly alarmed
him. On leaving the queen, he immediately communicated the circumstances
to Burleigh and Hatton; and thinking it safest for himself to rid his
hands of the warrant, he delivered it up to Burleigh, by whom it had
been drawn and from whom he had at first received it. A council was now
called, consisting of such of the ministers as either the queen herself
or Davison had made acquainted with the signing of the warrant; and it
was proposed that, without any further communication with her majesty,
it should be sent down for immediate execution to the four earls to whom
it was directed.

Davison appears to have expressed some fears that he should be made to
bear the blame of this step; but all his fellow-councillors then present
joined to assure him that they would share the responsibility: it was
also said, that her majesty had desired of several that she might not be
troubled respecting any of the particulars of the last dismal scene;
consequently it was impossible that she could complain of their
proceeding without her privity. By these arguments Davison was seduced
to give his concurrence; and Beal, a person noted for the vehemence of
his attachment to the protestant cause and to the title of the countess
of Hertford, was dispatched with the instrument; in obedience to which
Mary underwent the fatal stroke on February 8th.

The news of this event was received by Elizabeth with the most
extraordinary demonstrations of astonishment, grief, and anger. Her
count