Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/542

 522 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 45- 1 no sign of fire on them/ and with their clothes scat- tered at their side. Some said that they were smothered in their sleep ; some that they were taken down into a stable and ' wirried ; ' some that t hearing the keys grate in the doors below them, they started from their beds and were flying down the stairs, when they were caught and strangled.' Hay and Hepburn told one consistent story to the foot of the scaffold: When the voices were silent overhead they lit the match and fled, lock- ing the doors behind them. In the garden they found Both well watching with his friends, and they waited there till the house blew up, when they made off and saw no more. It was thought however that in dread of torture they left the whole dark truth untold ; and over the events of that night a horrible mist still hangs un- penetrated and unpenetrable for ever. This only was certain, that with her husband Mary Stuart's chances of the English throne perished also, andjwith them all_serious prospect of a Catholic revolu- tion. With a deadly instinct the world divined the author of the murder ; and more than one nobleman, on the night on which the news reached London, hastened to transfer his allegiance to Lady Catherine Grey. 1 The faithful Melville hurried up to defend his mis- tress but to the anxious questions of de Silva, though he called her innocent, he gave confused answers. 2 1 DC Silva to Philip, February 1 7 '. MS. Simancas. 2 Aunque este salv6 a la Reyna, veo le algo confuso.' DC Silva to Philip, February 22 : MS. Ibid.