Alas! what am I?--what avails my life? Does not my body live without a soul?-- A shadow vain--the sport of anxious strife, That wishes but to die, and end the whole. Why should harsh enmity pursue me more? The false world's greatness has no charms for me; Soon will the struggle and the grief be o'er;-- Soon the oppressor gain the victory. Ye friends! to whose remembrance I am dear, No strength to aid you, or your cause, have I; Cease then to shed the unavailing tear,-- I have not feared to live, nor dread to die; Perchance the pain that I have suffered here, May win me more of bliss thro' God's eternal year. [186] See the whole of this letter in Whittaker, vol. iv. p. 399. Camden translated it into Latin, and introduced it into his History; but he published only an abridged edition of it, which Dr Stuart has paraphrased and abridged still further; and Mademoiselle de Keralio has translated Dr Stuart's paraphrased abridgment into French, supposing it to have been the original letter. Stuart, vol. ii. p. 164.--Keralio, Histoire d'Elisabethe, vol. v. p. 349. [187] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 395. [188] They were hanged on two successive days, seven on each day; and the first seven, among whom were Ballard, Babington, and Savage, were cut down before they were dead, embowelled, and then quartered.--_Stranguage_, _p._ 177. [189] Stranguage, p. 176.--Chalmers, vol. i. p. 427 et seq. [190] In the first series of Ellis's Collection of "Original Letters illustrative of English History," there is given a fac simile of the plan, in Lord Burleigh's hand, for the arrangement to be observed at the trial of the Queen of Scots. As it is interesting, and brings the whole scene more vividly before us, the following explanatory copy of it will be perused with interest. [Illustration: The upper end of the Gret Chambre at Fordynghay Cast.] _Below, in another hand, apparently in answer to Lord Burleigh's direction, is the following_: "This will be most convenientlye in the greatt Chamber; the lengthe whereof is in all xxiij. yerds with the windowe: whereof there may be fr. the neither part beneth the barre viij. yerds: and the rest for the upper parte. The breadeth of the chamber is vij. yerds. "There is another chambre for the Lords to dyne in, the lengthe is xiiij. yerds; the breadeth, vij. yerdes; and the deppeth iij. yerdes dim."