mstance is mentioned sometimes
as showing how sick Elizabeth must have been. But the fact is, there was
no reason whatever for any haste. Elizabeth was now completely in Mary's
power, and it could make no possible difference how long she was upon
the road.

The litter passed along the roads in great state. It was a princess that
they were bearing. As they approached London, a hundred men in handsome
uniforms went before, and an equal number followed. A great many people
came out from the city to meet the princess, as a token of respect. This
displeased Mary, but it could not well be prevented or punished. On
their arrival they took Elizabeth to one of the palaces at Westminster,
called Whitehall. She was examined by Mary's privy council. Nothing was
proved against her, and, as the rebellion seemed now wholly at an end,
she was at length released, and thus ended her first durance as a
political prisoner.

It happened, however, that other persons implicated in Wyatt's plot,
when examined, made charges against Elizabeth in respect to it, and
Queen Mary sent another force and arrested her again. She was taken now
to a famous royal palace, called Hampton Court, which is situated on the
Thames, a few miles above the city. She brought many of the officers of
her household and of her personal attendants with her; but one of the
queen's ministers, accompanied by two other officers, came soon after,
and dismissed all her own attendants, and placed persons in the service
of the queen in their place. They also set a guard around the palace,
and then left the princess, for the night, a close prisoner, and yet
without any visible signs of coercion, for all these guards might be
guards of honor.

The next day some officers came again, and told her that it had been
decided to send her to the Tower, and that a barge was ready at the
river to convey her. She was very much agitated and alarmed, and begged
to be allowed to send a letter to her sister before they took her away.
One of the officers insisted that she should have the privilege, and the
other that she should not. The former conquered in the contest, and
Elizabeth wrote the letter and sent it. It contained an earnest and
solemn disavowal of all participation in the plots which she had been
charged with encouraging, and begged Mary to believe that she was
innocent, and allow her to be released.

The letter did no good. Elizabeth was taken into the barge and conveyed
in a ver