d
you to insert."

Then she was shown the letter that Babington, it was said, had written
her. She glanced at it; then said, "I have no knowledge of this letter".
Upon this, she was shown her reply, and she said again, "I have no more
knowledge of this answer. If you will show me my own letter and my own
signature containing what you say, I will acquiesce in all; but up to the
present, as I have already told you, you have produced nothing worthy of
credence, unless it be the copies you have invented and added to with
what seemed good to you."

With these words, she rose, and with her eyes full of tears--

"If I have ever," said she, "consented to such intrigues, having for
object my sister's death, I pray God that He have neither pity nor mercy
on me. I confess that I have written to several persons, that I have
implored them to deliver me from my wretched prisons, where I languished,
a captive and ill-treated princess, for nineteen years and seven months;
but it never occurred to me, even in thought, to write or even to desire
such things against the queen. Yes, I also confess to having exerted
myself for the deliverance of some persecuted Catholics, and if I had
been able, and could yet, with my own blood, protect them and save them
from their pains, I would have done it, and would do it for them with all
my power, in order to save them from destruction."

Then, turning to the secretary, Walsingham--

"But, my lord," said she, "from the moment I see you here, I know whence
comes this blow: you have always been my greatest enemy and my son's, and
you have moved everyone against me and to my prejudice."

Thus accused to his face, Walsingham rose.

"Madam," he replied, "I protest before God, who is my witness, that you
deceive yourself, and that I have never done anything against you
unworthy of a good man, either as an individual or as a public
personage."

This is all that was said and done that day in the proceedings, till the
next day, when the queen was again obliged to appear before the
commissioners.

And, being seated at the end of the table of the said hall, and the said
commissioners about her, she began to speak in a loud voice.

"You are not unaware, my lords and gentlemen, that I am a sovereign
queen, anointed and consecrated in the church of God, and cannot, and
ought not, for any reason whatever, be summoned to your courts, or called
to your bar, to be judged by the law and statutes that yo