Unknown to History: A Story of the Captivity of Mary of Scotland

by Charlotte M. Yonge

  CHAPTER XXXI.

  EVIDENCE.

  In the meantime the two Richard Talbots, father and son, had safelyarrived in London, and had been made welcome at the house of theirnoble kinsman.

  Nau and Curll, they heard, were in Walsingham's house, subjected toclose examination; Babington and all his comrades were in the Tower.The Council was continually sitting to deliberate over the fate of thelatter unhappy men, of whose guilt there was no doubt; and neither LordTalbot nor Will Cavendish thought there was any possibility of MasterRichard gaining permission to plead how the unfortunate Babington hadbeen worked on and deceived. After the sentence should be pronounced,Cavendish thought that the request of the Earl of Shrewsbury mightprevail to obtain permission for an interview between the prisoner andone commissioned by his former guardian. Will was daily attending SirFrancis Walsingham as his clerk, and was not by any means unwilling torelate anything he had been able to learn.

  Queen Elizabeth was, it seemed, greatly agitated and distressed. Theshock to her nerves on the day when she had so bravely overawedBarnwell with the power of her eye had been such as not to be easilysurmounted. She was restless and full of anxiety, continually startingat every sound, and beginning letters to the Queen of Scots which werenever finished. She had more than once inquired after the brave sailoryouths who had come so opportunely to her rescue; and Lord Talbotthought it would be well to present Diccon and his father to her, andaccordingly took them with him to Greenwich Palace, where they had thebenefit of looking on as loyal subjects, while her Majesty, in royalfashion, dined in public, to the sound of drums, trumpets, fifes, andstringed instruments. But though dressed with her usual elaboratecare, she looked older, paler, thinner, and more haggard than whenDiccon had seen her three weeks previously, and neither her eye normouth had the same steadiness. She did not eat with relish, but almostas if she were forcing herself, lest any lack of appetite might beobserved and commented upon, and her looks continually wandered asthough in search of some lurking enemy; for in truth no woman, nor maneither, could easily forget the suggestion which had recently beenbrought to her knowledge, that an assassin might "lurk in her galleryand stab her with his dagger, or if she should walk in her garden, hemight shoot her with his dagg, or if she should walk abroad to take theair, he might assault her with his arming sword and make sure work."Even though the enemies were safe in prison, she knew not but thatdagger, dagg, or arming sword might still be ready for her, and shebelieved that any fatal charge openly made against Mary at the trialmight drive her friends to desperation and lead to the use of dagg ordagger. She was more unhinged than ever before, and commanded herselfwith difficulty when going through all the scenes of her public life asusual.

  The Talbots soon felt her keen eye on them, and a look of recognitionpassed over her face as she saw Diccon. As soon as the meal was over,and the table of trestles removed, she sent a page to command LordTalbot to present them to her.

  "So, sir," she said, as Richard the elder knelt before her, "you arethe father of two brave sons, whom you have bred up to do good service;but I only see one of them here. Where is the elder?"

  "So please your Majesty, Sir Amias Paulett desired to retain him atChartley to assist in guarding the Queen of Scots."

  "It is well. Paulett knows a trusty lad when he sees him. And so doI. I would have the youths both for my gentlemen pensioners--the elderwhen he can be spared from his charge, this stripling at once."

  "We are much beholden to your Majesty," said Richard, bending his headthe lower as he knelt on one knee; for such an appointment gave bothtraining and recommendation to young country gentlemen, and was muchsought after.

  "Methinks," said Elizabeth, who had the royal faculty of rememberingfaces, "you have yourself so served us, Mr. Talbot?"

  "I was for three years in the band of your Majesty's sister, QueenMary," said Richard, "but I quitted it on her death to serve at sea,and I have since been in charge at Sheffield, under my Lord ofShrewsbury."

  "We have heard that he hath found you a faithful servant," said theQueen, "yea, so well affected as even to have refused your daughter inmarriage to this same Babington. Is this true?"

  "It is, so please your Majesty."

  "And it was because you already perceived his villainy?"

  "There were many causes, Madam," said Richard, catching at the chanceof saying a word for the unhappy lad, "but it was not so much villainythat I perceived in him as a nature that might be easily practised uponby worse men than himself."

  "Not so much a villain ready made as the stuff villains are made of,"said the Queen, satisfied with her own repartee.

  "So please your Majesty, the metal that in good hands becomes a bravesword, in evil ones becomes a treacherous dagger."

  "Well said, Master Captain, and therefore, we must destroy alike thedagger and the hands that perverted it."

  "Yet," ventured Richard, "the dagger attempered by your Majesty'sclemency might yet do noble service."

  Elizabeth, however, broke out fiercely with one of her wonted oaths.

  "How now? Thou wouldst not plead for the rascal! I would have you toknow that to crave pardon for such a fellow is well-nigh treason initself. You have license to leave us, sir."

  "I should scarce have brought you, Richard," said Lord Talbot, as soonas they had left the presence chamber, "had I known you would ventureon such folly. Know you not how incensed she is? Naught but yourproved loyalty and my father's could have borne you off this time, andit would be small marvel to me if the lad's appointment were forgotten."

  "I could not choose but run the risk," said Richard. "What else came Ito London for?"

  "Well," said his cousin, "you are a brave man, Richard Talbot. I knowthose who had rather scale a Spanish fortress than face Queen Elizabethin her wrath. Her tongue is sharper than even my stepdame's, though itdoth not run on so long."

  Lord Talbot was not quite easy when that evening a gentleman, clad inrich scarlet and gold, and armed to the teeth, presented himself atShrewsbury House and inquired for Mr. Talbot of Bridgefield. However,it proved to be the officer of the troop of gentlemen pensioners cometo enroll Diccon, tell him the requirements, and arrange when he shouldjoin in a capacity something like that of an esquire to one of theseniors of the troop. Humfrey was likewise inquired for, but it wasthought better on all accounts that he should continue in his presentsituation, since it was especially needful to have trustworthy personsat Chartley in the existing crisis. Master Richard was well satisfiedto find that his son's immediate superior would be a gentleman of agood Yorkshire family, whose father was known to him, and who promisedto have a care of Master Richard the younger, and preserve him, as faras possible, from the perils of dicing, drinking, and running into badcompany.

  Launching a son in this manner and equipping him for service was ananxious task for a father, while day after day the trial was deferred,the examinations being secretly carried on before the Council till, asCavendish explained, what was important should be disclosed.

  Of course this implied what should be fatal to Queen Mary. The priestBallard was racked, but he was a man of great determination, andnothing was elicited from him. The other prisoners, and Nau and Curll,were questioned again and again under threats and promises before theCouncil, and the letters that had been copied on their transit throughthe beer barrels were read and made the subject ofcross-examination--still all in private, for, as Cavendish said,"perilous stuff to the Queen's Majesty might come out."

  He allowed, however, day after day, that though there was quite enoughto be fatal to Ballard, Babington, Savage, and Barnwell, whatever elsewas wanting was not forthcoming. At last, however, Cavendish returnedfull of a certain exultation: "We have it," he said,--"a most undoubtedtreasonable letter, which will catch her between the shoulders and thehead."

  He spoke to Lord Talbot and Richard, who were standing together in awindow, and who knew only too well who was referred to, and what theexpression signified. On a
further query from his step-brother,Cavendish explained that it was a long letter, dated July 16, arrangingin detail the plan for "the Lady's" own rescue from Chartley at themoment of the landing of the Spaniards, and likewise showing her privyto the design of the six gentlemen against the life of the Queen, anddesiring to know their names. Nau had, he said, verified the cipher asone used in the correspondence, and Babington, when it was shown tohim, had declared that it had been given to him in the street by astranger serving-man in a blue coat, and that it had removed all doubtfrom his mind, as it was an answer to a letter of his, a copy of whichhad been produced, but not the letter itself.

  "Which we have not found," said Cavendish.

  "Not for all that search of yours at Chartley?" said Richard."Methought it was thorough enough!"

  "The Lady must have been marvellously prudent as to the keeping ofletters," said Will, "or else she must have received some warning; forthere is absolutely naught to be found in her repositories that willserve our purpose."

  "Our purpose!" repeated Richard, as he recollected many littlekindnesses that William Cavendish when a boy had received from theprisoner at Sheffield.

  "Yea, Master Richard," he returned, unabashed. "It is absolutelyneedful that we should openly prove this woman to be what we know herto be in secret. Her Majesty's life will never be safe for a momentwhile she lives; and what would become of us all did she overlive theQueen!"

  "Well, Will, for all your mighty word _we_, you are but the pen in Mr.Secretary's hand, so there is no need to argue the matter with you,"said Richard.

  The speech considerably nettled Master William, especially as it madeLord Talbot laugh.

  "Father!" said Diccon afterwards, "Humfrey tried to warn Mr. Babingtonthat we had seen this Langston, who hath as many metamorphoses as therebe in Ovidius Naso, coming privily forth from Sir Francis Walsingham'scloset, but he would not listen, and declared that Langston was holdingMr. Secretary in play."

  "Deceiving and being deceived," sighed his father. "That is ever theway, my son! Remember that if thou playest false, other men will playfalser with thee and bring thee to thy ruin. I would not leave theehere save that the gentlemen pensioners are a more honest and manlysort of folk than yonder gentlemen with their state craft, wherein theythrow over all truth and honour as well as mercy."

  This conversation took place as the father and son were making theirway to a house in Westminster, where Antony Babington's wife was withher mother, Lady Ratcliffe. It had been a match made by LadyShrewsbury, and it was part of Richard's commission to see and conferwith the family. It was not a satisfactory interview. The wife was adull childish little thing, not yet sixteen; and though she cried, shehad plainly never lived in any real sympathy or companionship with herhusband, who had left her with her parents, while leading the life ofmingled amusement and intrigue which had brought him to his presentstate; and the mother, a hard-featured woman, evidently thought herselfcheated and ill used. She railed at Babington and at my Lady Countessby turns; at the one for his ruinous courses and neglect of herdaughter, at the other for having cozened her into giving her poorchild to a treacherous Papist, who would be attainted in blood, andthus bring her poor daughter and grandchild to poverty. The old ladyreally seemed to have lost all pity for her son-in-law in indignationon her daughter's account, and to care infinitely less for the savingof his life than for the saving of his estate. Nor did the young wifeherself appear to possess much real affection for poor Antony, of whomshe had seen very little. There must have been great faults on hisside; yet certainly Richard felt that there was some excuse for him inthe mother-in-law, and that if the unfortunate young man could havemarried Cicely his lot might have been different. Yet the good Captainfelt all the more that if Cis had been his own he still would neverhave given her to Babington.