The Valet's Tragedy and Other Stories [60]
master of the business of the State and of the person of the Queen, to the extreme injury of the realm, with the intention of marrying her, and she herself was shutting herself up in the palace to the peril of her health and life.' Cecil begged de Quadra to remonstrate with the Queen. After speaking of her finances, Cecil went on, in Mr. Froude's version: 'Last of all he said they were thinking of destroying Lord Robert's wife. THEY HAD GIVEN OUT THAT SHE WAS ILL; BUT SHE WAS NOT ILL AT ALL; SHE WAS VERY WELL, AND WAS TAKING CARE NOT TO BE POISONED . . . .' [The capitals are mine.]
This is the very state of things reported in 'Leicester's Commonwealth.' Cecil may easily have known the circumstances, if, as stated in that libel, Bayly had been consulted, had found Amy 'in no need of physic,' and had refused to prescribe. Bayly would blab, and Cecil had spies everywhere to carry the report: the extent and precision of his secret service are well known. Cecil added some pious remarks. God would not permit the crime. Mr. Froude goes on: 'The day after this conversation, the Queen on her return from hunting told me that Lord Robert's wife was dead or nearly so, and begged me to say nothing about it.' After some political speculations, the letter, in Froude, ends, 'Since this was written the death of Lord Robert's wife has been given out publicly. The Queen said in Italian "Que si ha rotto il collo" ["that she has broken her neck"]. It appears that she fell down a staircase.'
Mr. Froude, after disposing of the ideas that de Quadra lied, or that Cecil spoke 'in mere practice or diplomatic trickery,' remarks: 'Certain it is that on September 8, at the time, or within a day of the time, when Cecil told the Spanish ambassador that there was a plot to kill her, Anne Dudley [Anne or Amy] was found dead at the foot of a staircase.' This must be true, for the Queen told de Quadra, PRIVATELY, 'on the day after' Cecil unbosomed himself. The fatal news, we know, reached Windsor on September 9, we do not know at what hour. The Queen told de Quadra probably on September 9. If the news arrived late (and Dudley's first letter on the subject is 'IN THE EVENING' of September 9), Elizabeth may have told de Quadra on the morning of September 10.
The inferences were drawn (by myself and others) that Elizabeth had told de Quadra, on September 3, 'the third of THIS month' (as Mr. Froude, by a slip of the pen, translates 'a tres del passado'), that she would marry the Arch Duke; that Cecil spoke to de Quadra on the same day, and that 'the day after this conversation' (September 4) the Queen told de Quadra that Amy 'was dead or nearly so.' The presumption would be that the Queen spoke of Amy's death FOUR DAYS BEFORE IT OCCURRED, and a very awkward position, in that case, would be the Queen's. Guilty foreknowledge would be attributed to her. This is like the real situation if Dr. Ernst Bekker is right.* Dr. Bekker, knowing from the portion of de Quadra's letter omitted by Mr. Froude, that he reached the Court at Windsor on September 6, 1560, supposes that he had interviews with Elizabeth and Cecil on that day, and that Elizabeth, prematurely, announced to him Amy's death, next day, on September 7. But Mr. Gairdner has proved that this scheme of dates is highly improbable.
*Elizabeth and Leicester, Giesener Studien auf dem Gebiet der Geschichte, v p.48. Giesen, 1890.
In the 'English Historical Review,'* Mr. Gairdner, examining the question, used Mr. Froude's transcripts in the British Museum, and made some slight corrections in his translation, but omitted to note the crucial error of the 'third of THIS month ' for 'the third of LAST month.' This was in 1886. Mr. Gairdner's arguments as to dates were unconvincing, in this his first article. But in 1892 the letter of de Quadra was retranslated from Mr. Froude's transcript, in the Spanish Calendar (i. pp. 174-176). The translation was again erroneous, 'THE QUEEN HAD PROMISED ME AN ANSWER ABOUT THE SPANISH MARRIAGE BY THE THIRD INSTANT' (September 3), 'but now she
This is the very state of things reported in 'Leicester's Commonwealth.' Cecil may easily have known the circumstances, if, as stated in that libel, Bayly had been consulted, had found Amy 'in no need of physic,' and had refused to prescribe. Bayly would blab, and Cecil had spies everywhere to carry the report: the extent and precision of his secret service are well known. Cecil added some pious remarks. God would not permit the crime. Mr. Froude goes on: 'The day after this conversation, the Queen on her return from hunting told me that Lord Robert's wife was dead or nearly so, and begged me to say nothing about it.' After some political speculations, the letter, in Froude, ends, 'Since this was written the death of Lord Robert's wife has been given out publicly. The Queen said in Italian "Que si ha rotto il collo" ["that she has broken her neck"]. It appears that she fell down a staircase.'
Mr. Froude, after disposing of the ideas that de Quadra lied, or that Cecil spoke 'in mere practice or diplomatic trickery,' remarks: 'Certain it is that on September 8, at the time, or within a day of the time, when Cecil told the Spanish ambassador that there was a plot to kill her, Anne Dudley [Anne or Amy] was found dead at the foot of a staircase.' This must be true, for the Queen told de Quadra, PRIVATELY, 'on the day after' Cecil unbosomed himself. The fatal news, we know, reached Windsor on September 9, we do not know at what hour. The Queen told de Quadra probably on September 9. If the news arrived late (and Dudley's first letter on the subject is 'IN THE EVENING' of September 9), Elizabeth may have told de Quadra on the morning of September 10.
The inferences were drawn (by myself and others) that Elizabeth had told de Quadra, on September 3, 'the third of THIS month' (as Mr. Froude, by a slip of the pen, translates 'a tres del passado'), that she would marry the Arch Duke; that Cecil spoke to de Quadra on the same day, and that 'the day after this conversation' (September 4) the Queen told de Quadra that Amy 'was dead or nearly so.' The presumption would be that the Queen spoke of Amy's death FOUR DAYS BEFORE IT OCCURRED, and a very awkward position, in that case, would be the Queen's. Guilty foreknowledge would be attributed to her. This is like the real situation if Dr. Ernst Bekker is right.* Dr. Bekker, knowing from the portion of de Quadra's letter omitted by Mr. Froude, that he reached the Court at Windsor on September 6, 1560, supposes that he had interviews with Elizabeth and Cecil on that day, and that Elizabeth, prematurely, announced to him Amy's death, next day, on September 7. But Mr. Gairdner has proved that this scheme of dates is highly improbable.
*Elizabeth and Leicester, Giesener Studien auf dem Gebiet der Geschichte, v p.48. Giesen, 1890.
In the 'English Historical Review,'* Mr. Gairdner, examining the question, used Mr. Froude's transcripts in the British Museum, and made some slight corrections in his translation, but omitted to note the crucial error of the 'third of THIS month ' for 'the third of LAST month.' This was in 1886. Mr. Gairdner's arguments as to dates were unconvincing, in this his first article. But in 1892 the letter of de Quadra was retranslated from Mr. Froude's transcript, in the Spanish Calendar (i. pp. 174-176). The translation was again erroneous, 'THE QUEEN HAD PROMISED ME AN ANSWER ABOUT THE SPANISH MARRIAGE BY THE THIRD INSTANT' (September 3), 'but now she