Page:The house of Cecil.djvu/86

 66 THE CECILS

" In very truth," he says, " I know my credit in such cases so mean, and others I find so earnest and able to obtain anything, that I do utterly forbear to move for any. Whereupon many, my good friends, do justly challenge me as unwise, that I seek to place neither man nor woman in the chamber nor without to serve her Majesty, whereby I might do my friends good ; and therefore indeed I have few partial friends, and so I find the want thereof." *

As war with Spain became more and more certain, so did the presence of Mary in England, as a focus of intrigue, become more evidently a source of danger that must be removed. The discovery of her complicity in the villainous Babington plot was all that was now needed to seal her fate. It was this which convinced Burghley, who had hitherto been favourably disposed to her, that her presence could no longer be tolerated. Elizabeth was reluctantly forced to the same conclusion, though, as in the case of the Duke of Norfolk, she wished to avoid the responsi- bility for her death. When she heard that the execution, the warrant for which she had signed, had actually been carried out, she flew into a rage with all her ministers, and Davison, who, as Secretary, was technically responsible, was made a scapegoat ; he was deprived of his office, heavily fined and ruined for life. Burghley himself fell into deep disgrace, though how far the Queen's rage was real and how far assumed for the sake of appearances, it is difficult to say. It is certain at

1 Burghley to Herlle, August I4th, 1585 (S. P. Dom. Elizabeth. CLXXXI. No. 42). The portion here given is quoted by Froude, XII. 132, note.

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