The third day following, while this ominous lesson of vengeance was fresh in every mind, the two secretaries were forced to ratify by their oath the testimony which they had already given (Sept. 5th) to the correctness of the "copy." The testimony which they now ratified had been appended to the copy in these words:--"_Telle ou semblable me semble avoir esté la reponse escripte en francoys par monsieur Nau, laquelle J’ay traduict et mis en chiffre.--Gilbert Curle._" "_Je pense de vray que c’est la lettre escripte par sa Majesté à Babington, come il me souvient.--Nau._" "This letter or one like it appears to me to have been the answer written in French by monsieur Nau, which I translated and put into cipher.--Gilbert Curle." "I think in truth that this is the letter written by Her Majesty to Babington, _as far as I can remember_.--Nau." These equivocal testimonies contain the force of all the evidence produced against Mary. It is unnecessary to point out the impossibility of resting a conviction upon them. That is clear to every intelligent reader acquainted with the circumstances in which they were obtained and with the history of the prosecution as already summarily indicated, up to this point. The phrases "_this or one like it,_" "_as well as I can remember,_" insignificant as they might seem if employed in the absence of compulsion, will in their present connection strike every reflecting mind as the feeble devices of men striving to hold a safe course between the Scylla and the Charibdis of perjury and the rack. Whether Mary would or would not accept an offer of deliverance that involved the life of Elizabeth, is a purely speculative question, which does not affect the nature of the evidence produced against her. This, however, may be observed, that nearly four years earlier, when a conspiracy similar to the Babington plot against the life of Elizabeth was being organized by some of her friends on the Continent, she, on being acquainted of it, "refused," (so wrote the Papal Nuncio at Paris to the Cardinal of Como), "to listen to it." But, when hope in Elizabeth’s good intentions completely failed, and increased rigour deepened the misery of her prison-life, reasons which had hitherto seemed inadequate might now convince her that she was not obliged to live with the axe of the executioner or the dagger of the assassin, raised over her head because liberty could be brought to her only through the blood of her jailer. CHAPTER XIII. EXTRACTS FROM HER ADDRESSES TO THE COMMISSIONERS. Every word and act of this unhappy Princess, more especially as her life neared its close, have proved so interesting to students of her history, that I have deemed it well to reproduce here some of her speeches and utterances before the Commissioners appointed to try her.