第48章

If Jones correctly reported Elizabeth's words, there had been an 'attempt at' Cumnor Place, of which we hear nothing from any other source. How black is the obscurity through which Blount, at Cumnor, two days after Amy's death, could discern--nothing! 'A fall, yet how, or which way, I cannot learn.' By September 17, nine days after the death, Lever, at Coventry, an easy day's ride from Cumnor, knew nothing (as we saw) of a verdict, or, at least, of a satisfactory verdict. It is true that the Earl of Huntingdon, at Leicester, only heard of Amy's death on September 17, nine days after date.* Given 'an attempt,' Amy might perhaps break her neck down a spiral staircase, when running away in terror. A cord stretched across the top step would have done all that was needed.

*Nineteenth Century, vol. ii. p. 431. Huntingdon to Leicester, Longleat MSS. I repose on Canon Jackson's date of the manuscript letter.

We next find confusion worse confounded, by our previous deliverer from error, Baron Kervyn Lettenhove! What happened at Court immediately after Amy's death? The Baron says: 'A fragment of a despatch of de la Quadra, of the same period, reports Dudley to have said that his marriage had been celebrated in presence of his brother, and of two of the Queen's ladies.' For this, according to the Baron, Mr. Froude cites a letter of the Bishop of Aquila (de Quadra) of September 11.* Mr. Froude does nothing of the sort! He does cite 'an abstract of de Quadra's letters, MS. Simancas,' without any date at all. 'The design of Cecil and of those heretics to convey the kingdom to the Earl of Huntingdon is most certain, for at last Cecil has yielded to Lord Robert, who, he says, has married the Queen in presence of his brother and two ladies of her bedchamber.' So Mr. Gairdner translates from Mr. Froude's transcript, and he gives the date (November 20) which Mr. Froude does not give. Major Hume translates, 'who, THEY say, was married.'** O History! According to Baron Kervyn de Lettenhove, DUDLEY says he has married the Queen; according to Mr. Gairdner, CECIL says so; according to Major Hume, 'they' say so!***

*Relations Politiques des Pays-Bas, etc., xlii., note 4.

**Span. Cal. i. p. 178.

***The Spanish of this perplexing sentence is given by Froude, vi. p. 433, note 1. 'Cecil se ha rendido a Milord Roberto el qual dice que se hay casado con la Reyna. . . .'

The point is of crucial importance to Mrs. Gallup and the believers in the cipher wherein Bacon maintains that he is the legal son of a wedding between Dudley and the Queen. Was there such a marriage or even betrothal? Froude cautiously says that this was averted 'SEEMINGLY on Lord Robert's authority;' the Baron says that Lord Robert makes the assertion; Mr. Gairdner says that Cecil is the authority, and Major Hume declares that it is a mere on-dit--'who, they say.' It is heart-breaking.*

*For Mr. Gairdner, English Historical Review, No. 2, p. 246.

To deepen the darkness and distress, the official, printed, Spanish Documentos Ineditos do not give this abstract of November 20 at all.

Major Hume translates it in full, from Mr. Froude's transcript.

Again, Mr. Froude inserts his undated quotation, really of November 20, before he comes to tell of Amy Robsart's funeral (September 22, 1560), and the Baron, as we saw, implies that Mr. Froude dates it September 11, the day on which the Queen publicly announced Amy's death.

We now have an undated letter, endorsed by Cecil 'Sept. 1560,' wherein Dudley, not at Court, and in tribulation, implores Cecil's advice and aid. 'I am sorry so sudden a chance should breed me so great a change.' He may have written from Kew, where Elizabeth had given him a house, and where he was on September 12 (not 27). On October 13 (Froude), or 14 ('Documentos Ineditos,' 88, p. 310), or 15 (Spanish Calendar, i. p. 176)--for dates are strange things--de Quadra wrote a letter of which there is only an abstract at Simancas. This abstract we quote: 'The contents of the letter of Bishop Quadra to his Majesty written on the 15th' (though headed the 14th) 'of October, and received on the 16th of November, 1560. It relates the way in which the wife of Lord Robert came to her death, the respect (reverencia) paid him immediately by the members of the Council and others, and the dissimulation of the Queen. That he had heard that they were engaged in an affair of great importance for the confirmation of their heresies, and wished to make the Earl of Huntingdon king, should the Queen die without children, and that Cecil had told him that the heritage was his as a descendant of the House of York. . . . That Cecil had told him that the Queen was resolved not to marry Lord Robert, as he had learned from herself; it seemed that the Arch Duke might be proposed.' In mid-October, then, Elizabeth was apparently disinclined to wed the so recently widowed Lord Robert, though, shortly after Amy's death, the Privy Council began to court Dudley as future king.

Mr. Froude writes--still before he comes to September 22--'the Bishop of Aquila reported that there were anxious meetings of the Council, the courtiers paid a partial homage to Dudley.'* This appears to be a refraction from the abstract of the letter of October 13 or 14: 'he relates the manner in which the wife of Lord Robert came to her death, the respect (reverencia) paid to him immediately by members of the Council and others.'

*Froude, vi. p. 432.