He asked the forgiveness of God, of the spectators present, and of the queen, for the crimes for which he was about to suffer. He acknowledged his guilt, and the justice of his condemnation. His mind seemed deeply imbued with a sense of his accountability to God, and he expressed a strong desire to be forgiven, for Christ's sake, for all the sins which he had committed, which had been, he said, most numerous and aggravated from his earliest years. He asked the spectators present to join him in his devotions, and he then proceeded to offer a short prayer, in which he implored pardon for his sins, and a long life and happy reign for the queen. The prayer ended, all was ready. The executioner, according to the strange custom on such occasions, then asked his pardon for the violence which he was about to commit, which Essex readily granted. Essex laid his head upon the block, and it required three blows to complete its severance from the body. When the deed was done, the executioner took up the bleeding head, saying solemnly, as he held it, "God save the queen." There were but few spectators present at this dreadful scene, and they were chiefly persons required to attend in the discharge of their official duties. There was, however, one exception; it was that of a courtier of high rank, who had long been Essex's inveterate enemy, and who could not deny himself the savage pleasure of witnessing his rival's destruction. But even the stern and iron-hearted officers of the Tower were shocked at his appearing at the scaffold. They urged him to go away, and not distress the dying man by his presence at such an hour. The courtier yielded so far as to withdraw from the scaffold; but he could not go far away. He found a place where he could stand unobserved to witness the scene, at the window of a turret which overlooked the court-yard. CHAPTER XII. THE CONCLUSION. 1600-1603 Question of Essex's guilt.--General opinion of mankind.--Elizabeth's distress.--Fall of Essex's party.--Wounds of the heart.--Elizabeth's efforts to recover her spirits.--Embassage from France.--A conversation.--Thoughts of Essex.--Harrington.--The Countess of Nottingham.--The ring.--The Countess of Nottingham's confession.--The queen's indignation.--Bitter reminiscences.--The queen removes to Richmond.--Elizabeth grows worse.--The private chapel and the closets.--The wedding ring.--The queen's friends abandon her.--The queen's voice fails.--She calls her council together.--The chaplains.--The prayers.--The queen's death.--King James proclaimed.--Portrait of James the First.--Burial of the queen.--Westminster Abbey.--Its history.--The Poet's Corner.--Henry the Seventh's Chapel.--Elizabeth's monument.--James.--Mary's monument.--Feelings of visitors.--Summary of Elizabeth's character.