Stuarts

MARY STUART IN ENGLAND 67
which perpetually vexes her, but I have not much success. The hardness
of her side and the swelling increase daily as her age and weakness increase.
Her treatment, both in manner of living and the rigour of her close prison,
would be enough to make the strongest person in the world feeble and ill.
I protest that, if I had known, I would never have undertaken the responsibility
for the health of a person of such consequence."
Small wonder that she never quitted her room for weeks together when
all exercise was denied her, and her liberty was so restricted that Shrewsbury
would do no more than allow her " to walk upon the leads in the open air,
in my large dining-room, or in the courtyard."
And yet so eager was she to quit the house when permitted and able
to do so, that we hear of her being content to step over the shoes in the snow.
Although she writes to Elizabeth in 1581 that her limbs fail her, and that
she cannot walk "two arrow shots," still she would seem to have marvellous
fortitude, and tells the Bishop of Ross that she was determined to do her duty
in preserving her life, but if it pleased God to take it, it would not be much
to her grief.
The year 1581 was one of sickness. Mary tells Castelnau, the
French ambassador, that she is "without fresh air, not allowed necessary
exercise, and become so weak in her lower extremities that she was
obliged to be carried by her servants when she would pass from one room
to another."
She complains also of the " mean manner in which her table was served,"
and notices in severe terms the entertainment which was provided for her
on Easter Day. Shrewsbury replied : "It was as well as his allowance
enabled him to afford."
This year she was confined to her bed, and tells Beal that " though she
was not old in years, she found herself old in body — that her hair was turned
grey, and that she should soon have another husband."
This Beal was clerk to the Privy Council, and was sent to report upon
Mary's health. He found her so sore and full of pain that she could not
turn herself nor take any rest. " My Lord and Lady Shrewsbury tell me
that she hath been so these six weeks, and that for these two last winters
she hath been in like plight.
" She imputeth the cause thereof to the closeness of the air, and that
she is not suffered to go abroad, as her bringing up hath been, in so much
as being once sick of an ague in France (as she saith) the means how to