her palace of Richmond.

In the beginning of March her illness suddenly increased; and it was
about this time that her kinsman Robert Cary arrived from Berwick to
visit her. In his own memoirs he has thus related the circumstances
which he witnessed on this occasion.

"When I came to court I found the queen ill-disposed, and she kept her
inner lodging; yet she, hearing of my arrival, sent for me. I found her
in one of her withdrawing chambers, sitting low upon her cushions. She
called me to her; I kissed her hand, and told her it was my chiefest
happiness to see her in safety and in health, which I wished might long
continue. She took me by the hand, and wrung it hard, and said, 'No,
Robin, I am not well;' and then discoursed with me of her indisposition,
and that her heart had been sad and heavy for ten or twelve days, and in
her discourse she fetched not so few as forty or fifty great sighs. I
was grieved at the first to see her in this plight; for in all my
lifetime I never knew her fetch a sigh, but when the queen of Scots was
beheaded. Then, upon my knowledge, she shed many tears and sighs,
manifesting her innocence, that she never gave consent to the death of
that queen.

"I used the best words I could to persuade her from this melancholy
humour; but I found by her it was too deep rooted in her heart, and
hardly to be removed. This was upon a Saturday night, and she gave
command that the great closet should be prepared for her to go to chapel
the next morning. The next day, all things being in a readiness, we long
expected her coming. After eleven o'clock, one of the grooms came out
and bade make ready for the private closet, she would not go to the
great. There we stayed long for her coming, but at last she had cushions
laid for her in her privy-chamber hard by the closet door, and there she
heard service.

"From that day forward she grew worse and worse. She remained upon her
cushions four days and nights at the least. All about her could not
persuade her either to take any sustenance or go to bed.... The queen
grew worse and worse because she would be so, none about her being able
to go to bed. My lord-admiral was sent for, (who by reason of my
sister's death, that was his wife, had absented himself some fortnight
from court;) what by fair means what by force, he gat her to bed. There
was no hope of her recovery, because she refused all remedies.

"On Wednesday the 23rd of March she grew speechless. That