Wyatt had been supplied with artillery; a letter of Elizabeth had been found among dispatches intercepted on the way to Paris. The Spanish embassadors asserted that Elizabeth was deeply implicated in the late revolt, and advised the Queen to proceed to extremities against her. Mary was unwilling to believe ill of one to whom she was then much attached. She had only parted from her sister a few weeks ago, and on bidding her farewell had given her two handsome ornaments set with large and costly pearls. Elizabeth in her turn had professed a deep attachment to Mary; she had loyally given in her adherence to the throne, and, at the risk of sacrificing her position as leader of the Protestants, had attended Mass and toned down some of her more pronounced views touching the reformed faith. That her sister was guilty Mary refused to believe. Upon this point, which is one of the many secrets that history has refused to divulge, it was hoped that the recent researches amid the Venetian archives would throw some light. But no document has yet been found proving that Elizabeth was either directly or indirectly connected with the plots against Mary. The young lady herself has given the best account of her movements at this time. Quitting Woodstock she wrote with her diamond ring, on the window pane of the room she had occupied, these lines : "Much suspected by me It was, however, considered advisable that the Princess should be summoned to London and be examined by the Council. Mary put the invitation in the politest manner. She informs her " right dear and entirely beloved sister" that, as she might chance to be in some peril if any sudden tumult should arise," it was expedient that she should make her repair to the Court, where she assured her she would be most warmly welcomed. Elizabeth was then staying at her country seat at Ashridge, some thirty miles from London, and had no desire again to be put under the harrow of a cross-examination by the Privy Council. She pleaded ill-health, and expressed herself as unable to undertake such a fatiguing journey. Mary waited patiently for a fortnight, but at the expiration of that time it became imperative to ascertain how matters really stood. The Spanish embassadors declared she was guilty; Wyatt, who was in prison, had directly accused her; Mary herself began to grow suspicious. Two of the Queen's physicians were sent down to Ashridge to report upon the health of the patient. They came to the conclusion that she was strong enough to travel to London; but as the Princess "much feared her weakness to be so great that she could not be able to travel and to endure the journey without peril of life," the doctors were most considerate of their fair charge, and went south by very easy stages. We have the and remained content with the position in the State sne should Occupy. She wrote to Mary, informing her of this resolve, and begged for pardon. Her prayer was granted; the sentence of imprisonment was rescinded, and Elizabeth was summoned to Court. She was received graciously; she was restored to her dignity as Princess of the Blood Royal, and an establishment suitable to her position was assigned to her at Hatfield. The humiliations of the past were at an end. At Court Elizabeth was treated with the distinction due to the next heir to the throne. During the festivities at Christmas, she was seated at the Queen's table nearest the cloth of estate. When a "grand spectacle of jousting' was held upon the festival of S. Thomas of Canterbury, at which two hundred lances were broken, she sat with their Majesties and the aristocracy. The highest in the land did her homage. "Cardinal Pole, meeting her in the chamber of presence, kneeled down on his knees and kissed her hand; and King Philip meeting her, made such obeisance that his knee touched the ground." Next the Queen she was the greatest lady in the land. As the domestic and foreign policy pursued by the Queen became more and more oppressive to the country, the position of Elizabeth greatly increased in strength and stability, till at last it stood so prominently forward as to overshadow the power of the advisers of the Crown. Around her rallied the large body of the Anglican clergy, who were perfectly content with the spiritual influence and authority of their own branch of the Catholic Church; the aristocracy and the landed gentry, whose proud blood boiled at the subservience of the interests of England to those of Spain; the commercial middle classes, who saw their trade rapidly dwindling and quitting the country, and the yeomen and lower orders, who detested the foreigner simply because he was a foreigner. Elizabeth was the heroine of England, and men looked anxiously forward to the time when she should be summoned from Hatfield to take her seat upon the throne. She had not long to wait. It was evident to all that Mary was fast sinking into her grave, beneath the load of her public cares and private mortifications. Like some desperate gambler, she had staked her all upon one chance. She had embroiled her country in a bitter foreign war; she had established, by the terrible coercion of persecution, a hated creed; she had exhausted the national treasury and greatly crippled her own private resources; she had been indifferent to the interests of the loyal, warm-hearted people over whom she had been called to rule-and for what? To obtain the love of a cold, ambitious man, who had married her for political ends, and whose subsequent indifference and neglect made her, who had sacrificed all and had gained nothing in return, the laughing-stock of every boudoir and salon in Europe. Few scenes are sadder in history than those where the sickly, ill-favored Mary, with all the desperate passion of the spurned and childless wife, seeks to win back the love of her lord. His slightest hint is her command, and immediately acted upon. Philip regards France as his enemy. England at once throws down the gauntlet to France. Philip is the most intolerant of the defenders of the Catholic faith. Catholicism, as interpreted by Rome, becomes the religion of England. Philip is in want of money. The treasury is exhausted to supply his needs, and when that is not sufficient, his wife draws with both hands upon her own income. Philip is anxious to consolidate his position by birth of an heir. How the Queen prays for the joys of maternity, till long harping upon one subject causes her to mistake disease for an answer to her fervent petitions! It is always Philip and never herself. And now all this unselfishness she feels has been exercised in vain. Hated by her subjects, deserted by her husband, cheered by no infant's caress, the religion she has established only awaiting her end to be abolished, the unjust war that she waged resulting in a grave humiliation to her country, stricken, crushed, heart-broken, she passes out into the eternal future. "I have before me," writes Mr. Stevenson, the accomplished editor of the earlier portion of the Elizabethan State Papers, "a little book of prayers which seems to have belonged to her. It opens of its own accord at a page which is blurred and stained more than any other of its well worn leaves. There we may read the two secrets of her life, the two leading ideas of her existence. The one is a prayer for the unity of the Holy Catholic Church, the other is a prayer for the safe delivery of a woman with child. It pleased God that in neither case should the prayer of faith prevail; and, however humble may have been her submission, disappointment was death." The removal of Mary paved the way for the succession of her sister; Elizabeth, enlightened by the experience of the past, ascended the throne, and proved that the discipline of her youth had not been in vain, for hers was one of the most brilliant and judicious reigns in the annals of sovereignty. Elizabeth could be firm without being obstinate. She had the power to discriminate character and to select the best men for the service of the State. Her wide experience of affairs, enlarged by converse with those best informed, rendered her government strong. The lower and irresponsible elements of society did not then rise to the surface to cripple the progress of the nation. Our Burleighs and Walsinghams were not concerned to propitiate at all cost any section of the nation. Such an event as the control of Imperial policy by a few Irish attorneys elected to Parliament and wearily yielded to by the minister of the day to retain a majority was, happily, then impossible. Such unpatriotic conduct on the part of a minister would remove him from Elizabeth's councils. The proper subordination of ranks was then understood and acted upon. There was order and healthy action in the nation, and no feverish cry for the modification and remained content with the position in the State sne should occupy. She wrote to Mary, informing her of this resolve, and begged for pardon. Her prayer was granted; the sentence of imprisonment was rescinded, and Elizabeth was summoned to Court. She was received graciously; she was restored to her dignity as Princess of the Blood Royal, and an establishment suitable to her position was assigned to her at Hatfield. The humiliations of the past were at an end. At Court Elizabeth was treated with the distinction due to the next heir to the throne. During the festivities at Christmas, she was seated at the Queen's table nearest the cloth of estate. When a "grand spectacle of jousting" was held upon the festival of S. Thomas of Canterbury, at which two hundred lances were broken, she sat with their Majesties and the aristocracy. The highest in the land did her homage. Cardinal Pole, meeting her in the chamber of presence, kneeled down on his knees and kissed her hand; and King Philip meeting her, made such obeisance that his knee touched the ground." Next the Queen she was the greatest lady in the land. As the domestic and foreign policy pursued by the Queen became more and more oppressive to the country, the position of Elizabeth greatly increased in strength and stability, till at last it stood so prominently forward as to overshadow the power of the advisers of the Crown. Around her rallied the large body of the Anglican clergy, who were perfectly content with the spiritual influence and authority of their own branch of the Catholic Church; the aristocracy and the landed gentry, whose proud blood boiled at the subservience of the interests of England to those of Spain; the commercial middle classes, who saw their trade rapidly dwindling and quitting the country, and the yeomen and lower orders, who detested the foreigner simply because he was a foreigner. Elizabeth was the heroine of England, and men looked anxiously forward to the time when she should be summoned from Hatfield to take her seat upon the throne. She had not long to wait. It was evident to all that Mary was fast sinking into her grave, beneath the load of her public cares and private mortifications. Like some desperate gambler, she had staked her all upon one chance. She had embroiled her country in a bitter foreign war; she had established, by the terrible coercion of persecution, a hated creed; she had exhausted the national treasury and greatly crippled her own private resources; she had been indifferent to the interests of the loyal, warm-hearted people over whom she had been called to rule-and for what? To obtain the love of a cold, ambitious man, who had married her for political ends, and whose subsequent indifference and neglect made her, who had sacrificed all and had gained nothing in return, the laughing-stock of every boudoir and salon in Europe. Few scenes are sadder in history than those where the sickly, We fall of an apple. The answer to that question is the key to all the movements of the planets. Though Newton did not learn the great secret from the falling apple, we may do so with advantage. The simplest things in nature are often fullest of wonders. see objects falling around us every day and never stop to ask why it is so. We know that unless a body be supported it falls, and so natural does this seem to be, that when we first learn, for instance, that the earth is suspended in space, we are sure to inquire "what keeps it up." Many nations have reached a high degree of civilization without being able to answer this question, and they think the earth is supported upon some sort of pedestal, such as an elephant's back. But what does the elephant stand on? A tortoise, they reply. And the tortoise? Well, their philosophy does not go any farther, so they change the subject. Let us see if we can learn something about this curious problem from an apple. First of all it may be taken for granted that if an apple be placed, say, upon a shelf, it will remain there without moving unless something occurs to disturb it. It is equally true, though not quite so evident, that if the apple were set in motion it would always go on moving unless something checked the movement. As a matter of fact something always does stop moving bodies on the earth, and that something is nearly always friction. You know that an apple will run longer upon a planed deal board than on a rough one, and still longer on smooth ice; well, it is friction that stops the apple in each case, and friction is less upon smooth ice than on planed wood, and less on that than on rough wood. If we could entirely get rid of friction the apple would never stop. Newton thus enunciated these facts as his First Law of Motion": Every body continues in its state of rest or of uniform speed in a straight line, except in so far as it may be compelled by impressed forces to change that state. ... A little thought will show that this law is self-evident, although at first sight it seems to be contradicted by daily experience. If we hold an apple in our hand, there is clearly no reason, so far as the apple is concerned, why it should move from that place when the hand is removed. Yet as a matter of fact it does move, for it falls in a straight line to the earth. Something in the nature of a force must have acted upon the apple to cause it to move; and that force was not communicated by the hand. The apple falls to the earth, and so does everything else that is unsupported, in spite of a few such apparent exceptions as balloons. It is exceedingly difficult to understand how the earth can act upon any body at a distance from it, and the more one thinks upon the subject the more mysterious it seems; and, indeed, although we know quite accurately the manner in which the force acts, we know absolutely nothing about the nature of the force. It is as though we saw and learned all about the machinery in a great |