I am bold to trouble you with trifles, as one willing to be blamed rather for lack of good manners than for want of diligence.” It would appear that on 11th November Walsingham received an anonymous letter, evidently from a Catholic writer, informing him that Elizabeth dared not put the Queen of Scots to death for fear of the consequences. This threat, however, was not followed by any movement to support it. The indifference of the Scottish people to the persecution and imprisonment of their Sovereign cannot be explained unless their loyalty to James VI., her son, stood in the way, and they could not face a rebellion. CHAPTER IV Elizabeth's instructions to Lord Buckhurst to communicate the sentence of death to Mary, and her remarkable reasons for this act—Elizabeth compromised in the Babington Conspiracy—Her letter to Paulet to allow the commissioners an interview with Mary—Elizabeth's chicanery (Petit's version)—Paulet to Walsingham, 21st November 1586—Letter Henry III. to his Ambassador in London to request James to save his mother's life—Sentence of death communicated to Mary by Buckhurst—Queen Mary's pathetic letter to the Pope informing him that she has been sentenced to die, and giving her last instructions—Her letter to the Duke of Guise informing him of her sentence, and giving instructions about her affairs. Having in the previous chapter touched on the various points which occupied the attention of Queen Mary's enemies during the past four months, we now arrive at a critical period, the month of November. The situation was gradually becoming more serious and more acute, indicating that the mind of Elizabeth was not only fixed on the Scottish Queen during the day but during the night. The subject, in short, engrossed her whole attention. On 16th November 1586 she formulated her final instructions to Lord Buckhurst regarding the sentence of death which in her former letter she had ordered her ministers to find and pronounce. In this document, which we give in full, much is false and conjectural, much of it grotesque, while none of it is sincere or truthful. It would not occur to the Queen of England that these interpolations on Queen Mary's letters would ever be discovered:— “Instructions given by Elizabeth to Lord Buckhurst and Robert Beale to declare to the Queen of Scots the sentence passed against her and the demand for her execution: