Elizabeth's pensioner. He was ill-advised to let himself be so subject to his enemies on account of money received from them. Burghley answered that her son was not a pensioner; that his mistress had given him some money in order to get on with; that he had little money, as it was given him to meet his engagements. He said there was no mention of the King of France in the league; that her son had done well to enter into Elizabeth's friendship; that they had always defended him, and Elizabeth liked him, and they had not separated him from his mother. Her Majesty said she knew well all about it. As to the King of Spain, she had great respect for him, and to tell the truth, she had found nobody who had troubled her with such goodwill, and he had often aided her in her affairs, and she relied more on him than on anyone else. There was also some talk of the Jesuits who had been in Scotland troubling the State and religion, and of a Dr. Loges, whom they called traitor, with whom Her Majesty was in correspondence. She called him reverend father, and he acknowledged her as his lawful Sovereign. She said the Jesuits did their office when they preached and laboured to restore the Catholic Church. To counsel and comfort afflicted Christians was their duty, and she esteemed them good people. She protested that she did not wish harm to any of the commissioners for what they had said and done against her, and there was not one of them to whom she did not desire good, and apart, before two or three Lords, she explained what they had touched upon as to the deposition of her secretary. She had some conversation with Walsingham in private, who did not show that he remembered much of what she had said. At last she told him her cause was in the hands of God. And Her Majesty, to gratify the commissioners, in passing out of the hall turned to them and with a pleasant mien said, 'You have behaved severely with your charges, and have treated me pretty rudely for a person who is not learned in the laws of chicanery. May God pardon you and keep me from having much to do with you.' They turning to each other smiled, as did also Her Majesty.” This was an extraordinary rebuke to the commissioners, and it is unfortunate we have not a full report of the trial, in order to see the treatment the Queen so keenly resented, treatment that must have been disgraceful to call forth such a rebuke. The proceedings terminated, and the commissioners returned to London. In order that the reader may comprehend the situation it will be necessary to reproduce the two letters in connection with the Babington Conspiracy (referred to on page 213) on which Mary's trial was founded. The letters in italics are the interpolations. Babington to the Queen of Scots, July 1586:—