The commission was issued on 5th October to forty-six persons, and included peers, privy councillors, the Lord Chancellor, five judges, and the Crown lawyers, constituting them a court to inquire into and determine all offences committed by the Scottish Queen against the statute of the 27th year of Elizabeth. Shrewsbury and ten others declined to serve on this commission. The commissioners arrived at Fotheringay on 11th October, and Bromley and Burghley were appointed to conduct the trial. Elizabeth could not take the life of the Scottish Queen without the formality of a trial, and she therefore made her arrangements for an imposing function, so as to satisfy the public mind that she was doing her duty and that the trial was of the utmost importance, being no less than to determine a conspiracy against her own life and an invasion of England. In an age when the people were grossly ignorant and probably superstitious, a charge like this, on its becoming publicly known, was bound to set the people against the Scottish Queen. [Illustration: MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS. _From the Collection of_ LORD ELPHINSTONE, _at Carberry Tower_.] After the arrival of the commissioners we have the solemn farce of “preaching and prayers” at the chapel of Fotheringay, which Sir Walter Mildmay and others attended as a prelude to the trial. When we consider that these men came there (_a_) to try an innocent person, (_b_) that they had no proof, (_c_) that they had their Sovereign's command to condemn her with or without proof, this service was a mockery. It was not a Catholic service, consequently Mary had nothing to do with it. And in anticipation of what was coming, we have Elizabeth's really first insolent letter to Mary as referred to by Bourgoyne, in which she addresses her as “Madam” and appends simply her signature “Elizabeth.” No one can realise how keenly Mary felt this insult, while Bourgoyne passes it over as evidently too painful to be recorded. The impatience of the English Queen to have the captive tried and executed is manifest from the following paper, which conveys her instructions on the subject. Burghley and Walsingham were to use their discretion respecting the manner of first communicating with Mary, in respect of any private interview, if she should desire one, and likewise as to the expediency of admitting the public. Commission from Queen Elizabeth to Lord Burghley and Walsingham, 7th October 1586:—