The news was, in some respects a relief to Mary; it relaxed her consuming mental tension. Now she knew the worst, and her conduct needed no longer to be disturbed by alternating hopes and fears. She had striven hard, during the weary years of her captivity, to resign herself with Christian cheerfulness to the inevitable. But the love of liberty, and perhaps too a subtle desire of revenge, had at times ruffled the serenity of her spirit, and had dulled the pure flame of her religious zeal. Human aid now seemed no longer available, human prospects of glory and power no longer captivated her imagination, and the time and energy which she had hitherto expended on profitless plans and visionary deeds, she could now devote, with rich and enduring profit, to the preparation for a better life. When she heard Lord Buckhurst’s message, her face, as Camden relates, "became illumined with an extraordinary joy at the thought that she was about to die for the cause of religion," and with perfect composure, she made answer:--"I expected nothing else. This is the manner in which you generally proceed with regard to persons of my quality, and who are nearly related to the crown, so that none may live who aspire to it. For long I have known that you would bring me to this in the end. I have loved the queen and the country, and have done all that I could for the preservation of both. The offers which I have made are the proof of this, as Beale can bear me witness. I do not fear death, and shall suffer it with a good heart. I have never been the author of any conspiracy to injure the queen. I have several times been offered my freedom, and have been blamed for refusing my consent. My partizans have abandoned me and troubled themselves no more with my affairs. To prevent this I have attempted to obtain my deliverance by gentle means, to my great disadvantage, till at last, being repulsed on the one side and pressed on the other, I placed myself in the hands of my friends, and have taken part with Christian and Catholic princes, not, as I have before declared, and as the English themselves can bear witness by the papers which they have in their possession, through ambition nor the desire of a greater position, but I have done it for the honour of God and His Church, and for my deliverance from the state of captivity and misery in which I am placed. I am a Catholic,--of a different religion from yourselves; and for this reason you will take care not to let me live. I am grieved that my death cannot be of as much benefit to the kingdom as I fear it will do it harm; and this I say not from any ill-feeling or from any desire to live. For my part, I am weary of being in this world, nor do I, or any one else, profit by my being here. But I look forward to a better life, and I thank God for giving me this grace of dying in his quarrel. No greater good can come to me in this world; it is what I have most begged of God and most wished for, as being the