Queen Mary: “Give no more heed to the words of those who slander me than I do to the statements of those who betray you. No value is to be attached to the testimony of those spies or agents whose words always give the lie to their hearts. Do not believe that I have been vain enough to wish that harm should be done to Elizabeth. No; I shall never seek her ruin at the cost of my honour, my conscience, or my salvation. Your proceedings are unjust: passages are taken from my letters, and their real meaning twisted; the originals were taken from me; neither the religion I profess nor my sacred character as a queen respected. My lords, if my personal feelings can make one sympathetic chord vibrate in your bosoms, think of the royal majesty insulted in my person; think of the example which you set; think of your own Queen, who was, like me, wrongly mixed up in a conspiracy. I am accused of having written to Christian princes in the interest of my freedom. I confess I have done so, and I should do so again. What human creature, O good God, would not do the same to escape from a captivity such as mine! You lay to my charge my letters to Babington. Well, be it so, I deny them not; _only show me a single word in them about Elizabeth, and then I shall allow your right to prosecute me_.” That Mary was so persistently attacked and importuned about this, first by Gorges, then by Paulet, Bromley, and Burghley, without proof, indicates pretty clearly:— 1. That she was ignorant of the so-called assassination plot. 2. That the interpolations on her letter to Babington were the work of Walsingham. 3. That the importunity of Elizabeth's ministers was by Elizabeth's express command, and was part of a deliberate plan to incriminate Mary, in order to justify her execution. 4. That this course was considered the most politic in order to defend their action before the crowned heads of Europe. To the unlearned in those times a charge of this kind instituted by the Queen of England would, as already stated, be calculated to raise great suspicions against the Queen of Scots.