Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/231

 THE EMBASSY OF DE SlLVA. at the time of Melville's arrival. The information which Randolph had brought had been utterly unsatisfactory, and Elizabeth was harassed into illness and was in the last stage of despair. * I am in such a labyrinth about the Queen of Scots/ she wrote on the 23rd of September to Cecil, ' that what to say to her or how to satisfy her I know not. I have left her letter to me all this time unanswered, nor can I tell what to answer now. Invent something kind for me which I can enter in Randolph's commission and give me your opinion about the matter itself. 5 1 In this humour Melville found Elizabeth. She was walking when he was introduced in the garden at West- minster. He was not a stranger, and the Queen rarely allowed herself to be long restrained by ceremony. She began immediately to speak of ' the Queen of Scots' despiteful letter ' to her. ' She was minded/ she said, ' to answer it with another as despiteful ' in turn. She took what she had written out of her pocket, read it aloud, and said that she had refrained from sending it only because it was too gentle. Melville, accustomed to Courts and accustomed to Elizabeth, explained and protested and promised. With his excuses he mingled flattery, which she could swallow 1 'In ejusmocli labyrintho posita sum de response meo reddendo ad Reginam. Scotiso, ut nesciam quo- modo illi satisfaciam, quum neque toto isto tempore illi ullum respon- sum dederim, nee quid mihi dicen- dum nunc sciarn. Invenias igitur aliquid boni quod in mandatis scrip- tis Randall dare possira, et in hac causa" tuam opinionem mihi indica. Endorsed in Cecil's hand ' The Queen's Majesty's writing, being sick, September 23.' Scotch MS 8 Rolls House.