Beale ride out with his
men to go to my lord Shrewsbury, who was in the neighbourhood, and had
seen him return in time for dinner, with a number of strangers, among
whom was an ecclesiastic. On inquiry, he found this to be Dr. Fletcher,
Dean of Peterborough, who had been appointed to attend Mary both in her
lodgings and upon the scaffold. In the afternoon the street was not
empty for half an hour. From all sides poured in horsemen; gentlemen
riding in with their servants; yeomen and farmers come in from the
countryside, that they might say hereafter that they had at least been
in Fotheringay when a Queen suffered the death of the axe. So the dark
had fallen, yet lights moved about continually, and horses' hoofs never
ceased to beat or the voices of men to talk. Until he fell asleep at
last in his window-seat, he listened always to these things; watched
the lights; prayed softly to himself; clenched his nails into his hands
for indignation; and looked again. On the Tuesday morning came the
sheriff, to dine at the castle with Sir Amyas--a great figure of a man,
dignified and stalwart, riding in the midst of his men. After dinner
came the Earl of Kent, and, last of all, my lord Shrewsbury himself--he
who had been her Grace's gaoler, until he proved too kind for
Elizabeth's taste--now appointed, with peculiar malice, to assist at her
execution. He looked pale and dejected as he rode past beneath the
window.
Yet all this time the supreme horror had been that the end was not
absolutely certain.
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