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BOOK apartment." The malady increased upon her, till even her food became unacceptable to her;" she refused also the aid of medicine, because she felt no local pain.23 She sought to be alone, and declined into an indifference of worldly concerns," and to an insensibility to external sensations, while her body was perceptibly wasting away.25 Advised by her

21 The earl proceeds to say, 'I used the best words I could to persuade her from this melancholy humor, but I found by her that it was too deep rooted in her heart, and hardly to be removed. This was upon Saturday night, and she gave command that the great closet should be prepared for her to go to chapel the next morning. The next day, all things being in readiness, we long expected her coming. After 11 o'clock, one of the grooms came out, and bade make ready for the private closet, as she would not go to the great. There we stayed long for her coming, but at the last she had cushions laid for her in the privy chamber, hard by the closet door, and there she heard service.' Monmouth, ib. p. 117.

22 From that time forwards she grew worse and worse. She remained upon her cushions four days and nights at the least. All about her could not persuade her either to take any sustenance, or to go to bed.' Monmouth, ib. The Memoirs of this earl were published by lord Orrery, and reprinted in 1808.

23 The MS. adds,Being persuaded to use the help of physic, she utterly refused it, either because she thought her body, being not accustomed thereto, it would not do, or else that, having satiety of the world, she desired rather to die than live; for she would divers times say in her sickness, I am not sick; I feel no pain; and yet I pine away.' Ellis, ib. 194. The French ambassador, on 22d, wrote, 'that she had been better the day before, but was that day worse; and notwithstanding all the importunities of her counsellors and physicians to consent to the use of proper remedies for her relief, she would not take one. She was angry with them for it. She said she knew her own strength and constitution better than they, and that she was not in so much danger as they imagined.' Birch, p. 507.

244

She was wholly addicted to silence and solitariness; which gave occasion of suspicion that she was afflicted in mind; but being moved by some of her council to impart such griefs as they doubted might trouble her, she answered, that she knew nothing in the world worthy to trouble her.' It is a constant opinion of such as were most inward with her, that she was then free from any such impression of mental derangement.' Ellis's MS. 194.

25 The French envoy, on 28 March, stated that 'the queen continued to grow worse, and appeared already in a manner insensible, not speaking sometimes for two or three hours, and within the last two days not for above four-and-twenty, holding her finger almost continually in her mouth, with her eyes open, and fixed upon the ground, where she sat

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attendant prelates to direct her spirit to the Divine CHAP. Being, she gently assured them that she had for some time done so.' The inability to sleep was succeeded by an augmented failure of the organs of speech; yet she retained the use of her intellectual faculties, and could exhibit her devout feelings, by moving her hands and eyes into the attitude of adoration and supplication." When questioned by her three most confidential ministers, a few days before, as to her successor, she had mentioned the Scottish king.28 Another manuscript account compresses her answer, and perhaps more truly, considering her feeble and exhausted condition, into two short sentences; No base person, but a king.' The latter term sufficiently pointed to

upon cushions without resting or raising herself. She was greatly emaciated by her long watching and fasting.' Birch, p. 507.

26 The Sloane MS. thus describes this important insight into her religious mind. The bishops who then attended the court, seeing that she would not hearken to advice for the recovery of her bodily health, desired her to provide for her spiritual safety; and to recommend her soul to GOD. Whereto, she mildly answered, 'THAT I HAVE DONE LONG AGO.' Ellis, p. 194.

'She sat up six days together without any sleep; and yet, she was not bereaved of understanding, but had the use thereof, even after her speech failed, as appeared by divers motions of HER HANDS AND EYES LIFTED UP, when she was required by the bishops to give testimony of the hope and comfort she had in GOD.' MS. Ellis, ib.

6

28 So the French ambassador stated; and also, That she did not desire that her kingdom should fall into the hands of rascals, which was her own word." Birch, 508. This dispatch may justify our accrediting the account in the Petyt MS. quoted by Mr. D'Israeli, that on 23d March, the same three counsellors, the admiral being on the right side of her bed, the lord keeper on the left, and Mr. Secretary Cecil at the bed's feet,' the lord admiral mentioned that they came in the name of all the rest of her council, to know her pleasure who should succeed. Whereunto she replied: My seat has been the seat of kings. I will have no rascal to succeed me. Who should succeed me, but a king? The secretary inquiring her meaning more distinctly, she added, Who should that be but our cousin of Scotland?' Curiosities of Lit. Second Series, v. 3. p. 107.

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29

BOOK James the son of Mary, as no other sovereign possessed so near a right. Being again specifically desired on the next day, before others of the council, if she meant the king of Scotland, to hold up her hand in token of assent,' if her voice could not express it; she lifted up her hand to her head, and turned it round in the form of a circle,' obviously implying the regal coronation.30 The evening afterwards was passed by her in earnest devotion, which

29 Ellis, 194. Perhaps if we substitute the actual term of ' rascal,' mentioned by the two other authorities, for base person,' we have her exact expressions, which the Petyt MS. may have amplified into an expansion that does not fully harmonize with her preceding silence, abstraction and debility.

30 Ellis's MS. p. 195. The French ambassador puts this incident on the day after the verbal answer, and states it thus: Afterwards, when her speech failed her, they requested her, in the presence of other of the council, to make some sign, to confirm what she had said to them. She put her hand to her head, to show her approbation of it.' Birch, 508. The same incident is thus represented by lord Monmouth: 'On Wednesday the 23d March, she grew speechless. That afternoon, by signs, she called for her council; and by putting her hand to her head, when the king of Scots was named to succeed her, they all knew that he was the man she desired should reign after her.' Mem. 119, 120. These accounts do not seem substantially to differ from the Ellis MS. and the ambassador. It is probable that the more ancient MS. gives the truest representation of the little symbolical action, in mentioning the turning round of the hand when raised. Mr. Petyt's MS. dates the incident on a Wednesday, and thus describes it, tho with a slight variation as to the form of the motion, yet more correspondently with the account in the text: 'About four o'clock in the afternoon, being Wednesday, after the archbishop of Canterbury and other divines had been with her, and left her in a manner speechless, the three lords aforesaid [the admiral, lord keeper, and sir Robert Cecil] repaired unto her again, asking her if she remained in her former resolution, and who should succeed her? But not being able to speak, was asked by Mr. Secretary in this sort: 'We beseech your majesty, if you remain in your former resolution, and that you would have the king of Scots to succeed you in your kingdom, shew you some sign to us.' Whereat, suddenly heaving herself upwards in her bed, and putting her arms out of bed, she held her hands jointly over her head in manner of a crown. Whence, as they guessed, she signified that she did not only wish him the kingdom, but desire continuance of his estate. After which they departed; and the next morning she died.' Vol. 3. p. 108. The account in the text from the MS. printed by Mr. Ellis, scems to give the simplest and truest statement.

31

notwithstanding her debility, she continued till very late. On the last day of March she rallied a little, took some refreshment, and ordered some religious treatises to be read to her.32 She was removed from her cushions to her bed; but her medical attendants soon relinquished their hopes. She lost her speech entirely. She tasted nothing again. And on the next day was seen to lay wholly on one side, without speaking, and without looking on any one. This half conscious state continued till the succeeding night, when she fell into a sleep of five hours-to wake; and, about three hours after midnight, gently to expire; having survived every royal, papal, noble

33

31 Lord Monmouth, the brave fighter against the armada, thus interestingly describes it: About six at night, she made signs for the archbishop [Whitgift] and her chaplains to come to her; at which time I went in with them, and sat upon my knees, full of tears to see that heavy sight. Her majesty lay upon her back, with one hand in the bed, and the other without. The bishop kneeled down by her, and examined her, first of her faith; and she so punctually answered all his several questions by lifting up her eyes and holding up her hand, that it was a comfort to all beholders. Then the good man told her plainly what she was, and what she was come to and tho she had been long a great queen here upon earth; yet, shortly, she was to yield an account of her stewardship to the King of kings. After this, he began to pray; and all that were by did answer him. After he had continued long in prayer, till the old man's knees were weary, he blessed her, and meant to rise and leave her. The queen made a sign with her hand. My sister Scroop knowing her meaning, told the bishop that the queen desired he would pray still. He did so, for a long half hour after, and then sought to leave her. The second time, she made sign to have him continue in prayer. He did so, for half an hour more, with earnest cries to God for her soul's health; which he uttered with that fervency of spirit, that the queen, to all our sight, much rejoiced thereat; and GAVE TESTIMONY TO US ALL OF HER CHRISTIAN AND COMFORTABLE end. By this time, it grew late; and every one departed: all but the women that attended her. This I heard with my ears, and did see with my eyes.' Mem. p. 120–2. 32 One of these books was Du Plessis' Meditations. Birch, p. 507. 33 French amb. letter in Birch, p. 507. She died 3d April 1603. She had been 66 in the preceding September. Lord Bacon thus describes her last state: ' Attenuated in body, and not nourished by wine, or a richer diet, she was seized with a rigore nervorum, yet

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3d April 1603.,

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and priestly enemy or conspirator that had plotted or acted against her. Her council immediately, at Richmond, and at ten that morning in London, proclaimed James of Scotland her successor," amid many public fears and agitations, but without any general dissatisfaction.35

Thus ended the TUDOR race on the English throne; a brief dynasty, which extended only, from the founder to his grandchildren, thro five reigns; but which, in the one hundred and eighteen years of its duration, had done more for the benefit of the people it governed, than any preceding family. At no period of its anterior history did England make such a rapid progression in all that constitutes human improvement, national greatness, or individual happiness, than from the accession of Henry VII. in 1485, to the death of Elizabeth in 1603.3

36

retained her voice, mind and movement, but more tardy and dulled. In a few days these faculties lessened, and, with her sense, by degrees extinguishing, she died in a placid and mild close of life.' Ellis Mem. 185.

Birch, 507. Sir Robert Cecil, the state secretary, had for some time, thro lord Henry Howard, maintained a friendly intercourse with James, and was preparing for his quiet accession, which the queen's council generally favored. The letters of lord Howard are printed in the Secret Correspondence of sir Robert Cecil.'

35 The MS. in Ellis thus describes the momentary alarms: 'During the time of her sickness, the people began more boldly to discover their affections, and variable rumors were spread in the city. The wealthier sort feared sudden uproars and tumults; and the needy and loose persons desired them. Such as inhabited the suburbs, carried their plate and treasure into the city, as a place of most safety, by reason of continual strong watches kept there. Then some spared not to say, openly, that the queen was past recovery; others affirmed that she was already dead, but, that it was only concealed in policy till some things were settled for the security of the state.' Ellis's MS. p. 195.

36 Her funeral is thus noticed in this MS.: In an open chariot, drawn by four horses, lay the body of the dead queen, embalmed, and inclosed in lead. Over it was HER IMAGE, in her parliament robes, with a crown on her head, and a sceptre in her hand, all exquisitely framed to resemble life; at the sight whereof divers of the beholders