th ordered the Scotch envoys to withdrew,
telling them that she would let them have her answer.

Three or four days passed, and as they heard nothing further, they asked
again for a parting audience to hear the last resolve of her to whom
they were sent: the queen then decided to grant it, and all passed,
as with M. de Bellievre, in recriminations and complaints. Finally,
Elizabeth asked them what guarantee they would give for her life in
the event of her consenting to pardon the Queen of Scotland. The envoys
responded that they were authorised to make pledges in the name of the
King of Scotland, their master, and all the lords of his realm, that
Mary Stuart should renounce in favour of her son all her claims upon the
English crown, and that she should give as security for this undertaking
the King of France, and all the princes and lords, his relations and
friends.

To this answer, the queen, without her usual presence of mind, cried,
"What are you saying, Melville? That would be to arm my enemy with two
claims, while he has only one".

"Does your Majesty then regard the king, my master, as your enemy?"
replied Melville. "He believed himself happier, madam, and thought he
was your ally."

"No, no," Elizabeth said, blushing; "it is a way of speaking: and if you
find a means of reconciling everything, gentlemen, to prove to you, on
the contrary, that I regard King James VI as my good and faithful ally,
I am quite ready to incline to mercy. Seek, then, on your side" added
she, "while I seek on mine."

With these words, she went out of the room, and the ambassadors retired,
with the light of the hope of which she had just let them catch a
glimpse.

The same evening, a gentleman at the court sought out the Master of
Gray, the head of the Embassy, as if to pay him a civil visit, and while
conversing said to him, "That it was very difficult to reconcile the
safety of Queen Elizabeth with the life of her prisoner; that besides,
if the Queen of Scotland were pardoned, and she or her son ever came
to the English throne, there would be no security for the lords
commissioners who had voted her death; that there was then only one way
of arranging everything, that the King of Scotland should himself give
up his claims to the kingdom of England; that otherwise, according
to him, there was no security for Elizabeth in saving the life of the
Scottish queen". The Master of Gray then, looking at him fixedly, asked
him if his sove