I thanked God and them for the honour they did me in considering me to be such a necessary instrument for the re-establishment of religion in this island, of which, although unworthy, I desired to take it upon myself to be a very pressing and zealous defender. In confirmation of all this, as I had before protested, I offered willingly to shed my blood in the quarrel of the Catholic Church; and moreover, even, if the people thought that my life could serve for the good and public peace of this island, I would not refuse to give it to them (freely) in reward for the twenty years they have detained me in prison. As to their bishops, I praise God that without their aid I know well enough my offences against God and His Church, and that I do not approve their errors, nor wish to communicate with them in any way. But if it pleased them to permit me to have a Catholic priest, I said I would accept that very willingly, and even demanded it in the name of Jesus Christ, in order to dispose my conscience, and to participate in the Holy Sacraments, on leaving this world. They answered me that, do what I would, I should not be either saint or martyr, as I was to die for the murder of their Queen and for wishing to dispossess her. I replied that I was not so presumptuous as to aspire to these two honours; but that although they had power over my body by divine permission, not by justice, as I am a sovereign queen, as I have always protested, still they had not power over my soul, nor could they prevent me from hoping that through the mercy of God, who died for me, He will accept from me my blood and my life, which I offer to Him for the maintenance of His Church, outside of which I should never desire to rule any worldly kingdom, thereby risking the eternal kingdom either here or elsewhere; and I shall beg of Him that the sorrow and other persecutions of body and mind which I suffer, may weigh against my sins. But to have contrived, counselled, or commanded Elizabeth's death, that I have never done, nor would I suffer, for my own account, that one single _blow_ should be given to her. Elizabeth's emissaries rejoined, 'You have counselled and allowed that the English should name you their Sovereign, as appears by the letters of Allen, Lewis, and several others; and this you have not contradicted.'