If nothing had been at stake
but her own life, she would have left the lady to weave fresh plots and
at last, perhaps, to succeed. If the nation's safety required an end to
be made with her, she felt it hard that the duty should be thrown on
herself. Where were all those eager champions who had signed the
Association Bond, who had talked so loudly? Could none of them be found
to recollect their oaths and take the law into their own hands?
Her Council, Burghley, and the rest, knowing her disposition and feeling
that it was life or death to English liberty, took the responsibility on
themselves. They sent the warrant down to Fotheringay at their own risk,
leaving their mistress to deny, if she pleased, that she had meant it to
be executed; and the wild career of Mary Stuart ended on the scaffold.
They knew what they were immediately doing. They knew that if treason
had a meaning Mary Stuart had brought her fate upon herself. They did
not, perhaps, realise the full effects that were to follow, or that with
Mary Stuart had vanished the last serious danger of a Catholic
insurrection in England; or perhaps they did realise it, and this was
what decided them to act.
I cannot dwell on this here.
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