We do not propose to relate the events of the reign of Elizabeth, inasmuch as our object does not extend beyond a sketch of her personal character. It is perhaps the most brilliant period in English history; it called into action some of the most able statesmen and greatest warriors of whom this country could ever boast. Leti tells us that Pope Sixtus V. was her ardent admirer, and placed her among the only three persons who, in his estimation, deserved to reign: the other two members of this curious triumvirate were Henry IV. of France and himself. He once said to an Englishman, “Your queen is born fortunate: she governs her kingdom with great happiness; she wants only to be married to me, to give the world a second Alexander.” The same author, in his life of Sixtus, records a secret correspondence of that pope with Elizabeth; among other particulars of which he relates the following anecdote. Anthony Babington, a gentleman of Derbyshire, with other English papists, had engaged in a conspiracy against the queen. Their project was, after having assassinated her, to deliver Mary of Scotland from prison, and to place her on the throne. Babington and three of his accomplices armed themselves against the possible failure of their enterprise, by applying to the pope for prospective absolution, to take effect at the time of their last agonies. His Holiness complied with their demand; but is said instantly to have despatched due warning to the queen. This conspiracy was the preliminary to an event, which has been justly characterized as the stain of deepest dye on the fair fame of Elizabeth,—the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1586. It would be foreign to the subject, to relate the circumstances which led that princess to take refuge in England, trusting to Elizabeth’s promises of protection and kindness. Her reception at first was as favourable as was perhaps consistent with due attention to the public safety, considering that the Roman Catholic portion of British subjects held her to be the rightful sovereign, and Elizabeth an illegitimate and heretical usurper. But feelings of habitual enmity, enforced perhaps by the arguments of her political advisers, overpowered the sympathy of the first moments, and suggested the advantages to be taken of a defenceless competitor. Elizabeth, therefore, after having in the first instance ordered her to be treated like a queen, afterwards committed her to close prison. On the discovery of Babington’s plot, in which Mary was deeply implicated, the queen of Scots was arraigned of high treason before commissioners specially appointed by the crown. By that solemn tribunal, she was tried and found guilty, and by Elizabeth was delivered over to execution. Even Bohun, in his character of Elizabeth, though in general her panegyrist, says on this occasion, “By this action, she tainted her reign with the innocent blood of a princess, whom she had received into her dominions,