part as God should
please to appoint." "For certainly," added this faithful servant, "we
will rather die than she should secretly and innocently miscarry."
"Marry, God forbid," answered Williams, "that any such wicked purpose
should be wrought; and rather than it should be so, I with my men are
ready to die at her feet also."

In the midst of her gloomy apprehensions, the princess was surprised by
an offer from the highest quarter, of immediate liberty on condition of
her accepting the hand of the duke of Savoy in marriage.

Oppressed, persecuted, and a prisoner, sequestered from every friend and
counsellor, guarded day and night by soldiers, and in hourly dread of
some attempt upon her life, it must have been confidently expected that
the young princess would embrace as a most joyful and fortunate
deliverance this unhoped-for proposal; and by few women, certainly,
under all the circumstances, would such expectations have been
frustrated. But the firm mind of Elizabeth was not thus to be shaken,
nor her penetration deceived. She saw that it was banishment which was
held out to her in the guise of marriage; she knew that it was her
reversion of an independent English crown which she was required to
barter for the matrimonial coronet of a foreign dukedom; and she felt
the proposal as what in truth it was;--an injury in disguise.
Fortunately for herself and her country, she had the magnanimity to
disdain the purchase of present ease and safety at a price so
disproportionate; and returning to the overture a modest but decided
negative, she prepared herself to endure with patience and resolution
the worst that her enraged and baffled enemies might dare against her.

No sooner was her refusal of the offered marriage made known, than
orders were given for her immediate removal into Oxfordshire. On
crossing the river at Richmond on this melancholy journey, she descried
on the other side "certain of her poor servants," who had been
restrained from giving their attendance during her imprisonment, and
were anxiously desirous of seeing her again. "Go to them," said she to
one of her men, "and say these words from me, _Tanquam ovis_" (Like a
sheep to the slaughter).

As she travelled on horseback the journey occupied four days, and the
slowness of her progress gave opportunity for some striking displays of
popular feeling. In one place, numbers of people were seen standing by
the way-side who presented to her various little gift