upon herself, and a better might be
contrived. The same afternoon she inquired if he had received an answer
from sir Amias; which at the time he had not, but he brought it to her
the next morning. It contained an absolute refusal to be concerned in
any action inconsistent with justice and honor. At this the queen was
much offended; she complained of what she called the "dainty perjury" of
him and others, who contrary to their oath of association cast the
burthen upon herself. Soon after, she again blamed "the niceness of
these precise fellows;" but said she would have the thing done without
them, and mentioned one Wingfield who would undertake it. Davison
remonstrated against this design; and also represented the dangerous
dilemma in which Paulet and Drury would have been placed by complying
with her wishes; since, if she avowed their act, she took it upon
herself, "with her infinite dishonor;" if she disavowed it, they were
ruined. It is absolutely inconceivable how a man who understood so well
the perils which these persons had skilfully avoided, should have
remained so blind to those which menaced himself; yet Davison, by his
own account, still suffered the queen to go on devising new schemes for
the taking off of Mary, without either acquainting her that the
privy-council had already sent off Beal with the warrant, or interfering
with them to procure, if possible, the recall of this messenger of
death. Even on his next interview with her, which he believes to have
been on Tuesday, the very day before the execution of the sentence, when
her majesty, after speaking of the daily peril in which she lived, swore
a great oath, that it was a shame for them all that the thing was not
yet done, and spoke to him to write a letter to Paulet for the dispatch
of the business; he contented himself with observing generally, that
the warrant was, he thought, sufficient; and though the queen still
inclined to think the letter requisite, he left her without even
dropping a hint that it was scarcely within the limits of possibility
that it should arrive before the sentence had been put in execution.

Of this unaccountable imprudence the utmost advantage was taken against
him by his cruel and crafty mistress; whose chief concern it had all
along been to discover by what artifice she might throw the greatest
possible portion of the blame from herself upon others. Davison
underwent a long imprisonment; the fine, though it reduced him to