This memorable ring is described by Aubrey, to have been a delicate piece of mechanism, consisting of several joints, which, when united, formed the quaint device of two right hands supporting a heart between them. This heart was composed of two separate diamonds, held together by a central spring, which, when opened, would allow either of the hearts to be detached. ‘Queen Elizabeth,’ says Aubrey, ‘kept one moietie, and sent the other as a “token” of her constant friendship to Mary, Queen of Scots, but she cut off her head for all that.’ [Illustration: Essex ring (?).] The circumstance of the ring is further verified beyond dispute by Mary herself, in a subsequent letter to Elizabeth, in which she bitterly reproaches her with her perfidious conduct. ‘After I escaped from Lochleven,’ she says, ‘and was nearly taken in battle by my rebellious subjects, I sent you by a trusty messenger the diamond you had given me as a token of affection and demanded your assistance. I believed that the jewel I received as a pledge of your friendship would remind you that when you gave it me I was not only flattered with great promise of assistance from you, but you bound yourself on your royal word to advance over the border to my succour, and to come in person to meet me, and that if I made the journey into your realm that I might confide in your honour.’ Elizabeth, as is well known, took no notice either of the pledge or allusions to her former professions. The illustration on the preceding page represents the ring mentioned (p. 339) as the property of the Warner family. Sir Thomas Warner, to whom it was presented by James the First, placed it on his shield of arms, with the motto, ‘I hold from the King.’ During the Duke of Norfolk’s imprisonment in the Tower he sent two diamond rings, as _love-tokens_ to Mary, Queen of Scots, while she was at Coventry. In the metrical chronicle of the ‘Life of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton’ we find that when Elizabeth heard rumours of the death of her sister, Queen Mary, to be really sure, she sent Sir Nicholas Throgmorton to the palace to request one of the ladies of the bed-chamber, who was in her confidence, ‘if the queen were really dead, to send her as a _token_ the black enamelled ring which Her Majesty wore night and day’:-- She said (since nought exceedeth woman’s fears, Who still do dread some baits of subtlety): ‘Sir Nicholas, know a ring my sister wears Enamell’d black--a pledge of loyalty-- The which the King of Spain in spousals gave. If aught fall out amiss, ’tis that I crave. ‘But hark! ope not your lips to anyone In hope us to obtain of courtesy, Unless you know my sister first be gone, For grudging minds will still coyne (coin) treachery. So shall thyself be safe, and us be sure. Who takes no hurt shall need no care of cure.’ Elizabeth’s meaning seems to have been that the ring should not be sought for until Mary’s death.