I find a letter of Lady Jane Drummond, in reply to this or another petition, which Lady Drummond had given the queen to present to his majesty.  It was to learn the cause of Arabella’s confinement.  The pithy expression of James the First is characteristic of the monarch; and the solemn forebodings of Lady Drummond, who appears to have been a lady of excellent judgment, showed, by the fate of Arabella, how they were true!

“LADY JANE DRUMMOND TO LADY ARABELLA.

     “Answering her prayer to know the cause of her confinement.

“This day her majesty hath seen your ladyship’s letter.  Her majesty says, that when she gave your ladyship’s petition to his majesty, he did take it well enough, but gave no other answer than that ye had eaten of the forbidden tree.  This was all her majesty commanded me to say to your ladyship in this purpose; but withal did remember her kindly to your ladyship, and sent you this little token in witness of the continuance of her majesty’s favour to your ladyship.  Now, where your ladyship desires me to deal openly and freely with you, I protest I can say nothing on knowledge, for I never spoke to any of that purpose but to the queen; but the wisdom of this state, with the example how some of your quality in the like case has been used, makes me fear that ye shall not find so easy end to your troubles as ye expect or I wish.”

In return, Lady Arabella expresses her grateful thanks—­presents her majesty with “this piece of my work, to accept in remembrance of the poor prisoner that wrought them, in hopes her royal hands will vouchsafe to wear them, which till I have the honour to kiss, I shall live in a great deal of sorrow.  Her case,” she adds, “could be compared to no other she ever heard of, resembling no other.”  Arabella, like the Queen of Scots, beguiled the hours of imprisonment by works of embroidery; for in sending a present of this kind to Sir Andrew Sinclair to be presented to the queen, she thanks him for “vouchsafing to descend to these petty offices to take care even of these womanish toys, for her whose serious mind must invent some relaxation.”

The secret correspondence of Arabella and Seymour was discovered, and was followed by a sad scene.  It must have been now that the king resolved to consign this unhappy lady to the stricter care of the Bishop of Durham.  Lady Arabella was so subdued at this distant separation, that she gave way to all the wildness of despair; she fell suddenly ill, and could not travel but in a litter, and with a physician.  In her way to Durham, she was so greatly disquieted in the first few miles of her uneasy and troublesome journey, that they would proceed no further than Highgate.  The physician returned to town to report her state, and declared that she was assuredly very weak, her pulse dull and melancholy, and very irregular; her countenance very heavy, pale, and wan; and though free from fever, he declared her in no case fit for