Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/823

Rh to the house of Lord Herris. From thence she dispatched John Beton to Elizabeth, with a diamond which she had formerly received from her, as a pledge of mutual amity; intimating, that if her rebellious subjects should persecute her any further, she would come into England, and beg her assistance. Elizabeth returned her a kind answer. But before the messenger came, she, against the advice of her friends, found means to convey herself, accompanied by Lord Herris, Fleming, and others, into England; and the same day wrote a letter to her in French, with her own hand, in which she gave her a long detail of her misfortunes, requesting her protection, and aid against her rebellious subjects. Queen Elizabeth, in her answers, promised to protect her, according to the equity of her cause; and under pretence of greater security, ordered her to be conveyed to Carlisle.

Being denied access to Elizabeth, which her rebellious subjects were indulged in, and removed from one prison to another, for the space of about eighteen years, in which she had often struggled for liberty, and interested many in her cause; she was at length brought to a trial, condemned, and beheaded, for being concerned in a conspiracy against the life of Elizabeth; and suffered with great equanimity, in the castle of Fotheringhay, 1586–7, and interred in the cathedral church of Peterborough: but her remains were afterwards removed by her son to a vault in Henry VIIth's chapel, where a most magnificent monument was erected to her memory.

Authors vary much in their sentiments concerning the character of this queen; but all agree, that she was most cruelly and unjustly treated. Mary was