Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/588

 572 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 67. interest. But hor dreams at that time were of Guise or Lennox, with some gay train of cavaliers, appearing at the gates of Sheffield and bearing her to London amidst the enthusiasm of Catholic England, to take possession of the throne. She had then felt herself better off where she was, than in Scotland or abroad, and had no desire to go. But the chance had passed and could not be recalled. Sir Ralph Sadler's servants were strangers, and there was no egress through the posterns of Tut- bury. Elizabeth fed her with words, and in anticipa- tion that she might try something desperate, she was guarded with especial strictness. Sadler, on March. his own responsibility, allowed her now and then to ride with him hawking in the meadows, 'a pas- time which she had singular delight in : ' fifty attend- ants, with pistols, followed always on horseback; but Sadler was reprimanded for carelessness ; and barely excused himself by assuring Elizabeth that ' if any danger had been offered or apparent doubt suspected, the Queen of Scots' body should first have tasted of the gall-' 1 From day to day her hopes grew fainter, as from day to day it became more clear that James had sold himself to her enemy. Again he had repudiated the association to which she had pretended that he had con- sented. No such thing existed, he said, nor ever should exist. In return, the Earl of Angus and his com- panions had been removed from Newcastle to Oxford, 1 Sadler to "Walsingham, March 22 April i : MSS. MAKY QUEEN OF SCOTS.