objection: and
could Elizabeth be in reason expected to take such a step in behalf of a
foreign and rival sovereign, professing a religion hostile to her own
and that of her people; of one, above all, who had openly pretended a
right to the crown preferable to her own, and who was even now
exhausting the whole art of intrigue to undermine and supplant her?

On the other hand, to confirm the exclusion of the Scottish line, and
adopt as her successor the representative of that of Suffolk, appeared
neither safe nor equitable.

The testamentary disposition of Henry had evidently been dictated by
caprice and resentment, and the title of Mary was nevertheless held
sacred and indisputable not only by all the catholics, but by the
partisans of strict hereditary right in general, and by all who duly
appretiated the benefits which must flow from an union of the English
and Scottish sceptres. To inflict a mortal injury on Mary might be as
dangerous as to give her importance by an express law establishing her
claims, and against any perils in which Elizabeth might thus involve
herself the house of Suffolk could afford her no accession of strength,
since their allegiance,--all they had to offer,--was hers already.

The lady Catherine Grey, the heiress of this house, might indeed have
been united in marriage to some protestant prince, whose power would
have acted as a counterpoise to that of Scotland. But a secret and
reluctant persuasion that the real right was with the Scottish line,
constantly operated on the mind of Elizabeth so far as to prevent her
from taking any step towards the advancement of the rival family; and
the unfortunate lady Catherine was doomed to undergo all the restraints,
the persecutions and the sufferings, which in that age formed the
melancholy appanage of the younger branches of the royal race, with
little participation of the homage or the hopes which some minds would
have accepted as an adequate compensation.

It will be remembered, that the hand of this high-born lady was given to
lord Herbert, son of the earl of Pembroke, on the same day that
Guildford Dudley fatally received that of her elder sister the lady
Jane; and that on the accession of Mary this short-lived and perhaps
uncompleted union had been dissolved at the instance of the politic
father of lord Herbert. From this time lady Catherine had remained in
neglect and obscurity till the year 1560, when information of her having
formed a priva