On the 25th October the commissioners met in the Star Chamber, Westminster. With one exception, they found Mary guilty, not of the various matters laid to her charge by Burghley, but of having compassed and imagined since 1st June divers matters “tending to the hurt, death, and destruction of the Queen of England.” Lord Zouch alone had the spirit to dissent from the sentence, declaring that he was not satisfied that she had done so. Thus ended the most disgraceful of all the judicial iniquities which disgrace the history of England. No witnesses were examined, and of the various documents produced against her not one was original. They were not even copies of written papers; they were only alleged to be copies of cyphers, on the credit of men who were not confronted with the accused, and whose signatures attached to their alleged confessions were either obtained through fear of torture or forged by Phillips.[9] It is evident that the utmost exertions and the strictest search on the part of Mary's enemies, directed by all the skill and vigour of Walsingham and carried into effect by the unscrupulous artifices and ingenuity of Phillips, had not been able to find the smallest scrap of evidence under Mary's hand which could connect her with the plot against Elizabeth's life. The whole case has been examined and carefully weighed, and the result is a confirmation of Mary's innocence.[10] That devoted friend of the Queen of Scots, Marie Seton, one of the four Maries, now living in the convent of Rheims in France, had evidently heard of the overwhelming calamity which had befallen her old mistress, and writing a private letter to Courcelles, the French Ambassador in Scotland, sent by Henry III. to urge Queen Mary's cause before Elizabeth, under date 21st October 1586, said:— “If she had not had a long experience of his courtesy she would complain of lack of news, as she only heard yesterday of his going to Scotland, in a letter from Paris on the return of M. d'Epinart's son. Begs to recall herself to his memory. It is nearly twenty years since Marie Seton left Scotland, and almost all her relatives and friends had died during that period: still there must be some who would let her know any news that he might be kind enough to tell her. She apologises for a short letter, but has to write in great haste. She only adds that she is in great trouble and anxiety over the news which the talk in France has of fresh troubles to the Queen her mistress, and commends M. de Courcelles to God, praying to God that he may be happier than she is,” etc.