352 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [011.44. In a momentary recovery of dignity she added at the close of her letter, that if the Queen of Scots refused,
- she would defend her country and subjects from such
annoyance as might be intended, and would finally use all such lawful means as God should give her to redress all offences and injuries already done or hereafter to be done to her or her subjects.' l But an evil spirit of trickery and imbecility had taken possession of Eliza- beth's intellect. The Queen of Scots naturally expressed the utmost readiness to receive commissioners sent from England to concede 'so much of what she had asked. By the time Mary's answer came, her Majesty, being no longer in a panic, had become sensible of the indignity of her proposal. She therefore bade Randolph ' so com- pass the matter that the Queen of Scots should rather send commissioners to England, as more honourable to herself; ' and ' if the Queen of Scots said, as it was like she would, that the Queen of England had offered to send a commission thither, he should answer that he in- deed said so and thought so, but that he did perceive he had mistaken her message.' 2 Elizabeth's strength, could she only have known it, lay in the goodness of the cause which she represented. The essential interests both of England and Scotland were concerned in her success. She was the champion of liberty, and through her the two nations were eman- cipating themselves from spiritual tyranny. By the side of the Jesuits she was but a shallow driveller in Elizabeth to Randolph, October 29 : Scotch MSS. Rolls Home. 2 Elizabeth to Randolph, November 26 : MS. Ibid.
