Mary Queen of Scots and Who Wrote the Casket Letters? (2)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1901 Excerpt: ...or entertainment of any kind whatsoever, not having received a single penny from Scotland since I left it. l On the 4th of January, 1585, Charles Paget wrote the Queen of Scots to try and escape in man's clothes, and assistance would be given her by a priest named Dollman, well acquainted with Tutbury and district. On the 5th of January she wrote from Wingfield a declaration promising to be an enemy to all those who should attempt anything against Elizabeth's life; and on the 13th of January, Sadler her gaoler wrote Walsingham that the diet of the Queen of Scots and her household amounted to 70 per week.2 On the 13th of January, Mary was transferred to Tutbury Castle, a wooden erection on which the sum of 500 was to be spent to make it fit for her reception. She was quite lame, and unable to walk. Her left foot had shrunk, and was shorter than the other. All this was due to her imprisonment. Elizabeth, in the practice of her usual penury, endeavoured to beg and borrow bed and table linen, and other articles of household furniture, from the neighbouring gentry--a proceeding which was contemptible. She appears to have retained Mary in prison for no other 1 Labanoff. 'State Paper Office. N object than the daily pleasure of tormenting her.1 Such a great retinue as was about Mary, including the guard, required a lot of provisions, and these were not to be had in sufficient quantities. Sadler, in his report, stated that--the immediate neighbourhood is already eaten bare by the long residence of so many people, firing very scarce, coal being the principal fuel whereof sixteen or seventeen loads are used weekly, brought in trains drawn by bullocks three deep, and foul roads. When the river was up, the bullocks had to swim, to the great grudg...