Series 3 > Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington plot

INTRODUCTION
XXXIX
Mary. But murder by State trial was so well under¬
stood in Elizabeth’s court, that the use of poison or of
the stiletto was little needed, and little practised.1
The letters about the conspiracy of George Gifford have
been printed more than once, and an abstract of them will
be found below at p. 169. They throw a strong light on the
temper of mind which made the Babington plot a possi¬
bility. The age of which we write, perfectly understood
that assassination could never be actually allowed, but
it had not yet appreciated how much harm the least
condonation of such crime could do to the body politic.
The sequel to our story will show but too sadly and surely
how many miserable calamities might have been averted
from the catholic cause, but for those unworthy answers
to George Gifford’s vile offers. The answers became
known (in an inaccurate version) to the provocateur Gilbert
Gifford, who used them to tempt Savage, Ballard, Bab¬
ington, and his friends. Alas ! they formed one of the
chief snares by which those poor fellows were brought to
their doom, and thereby Mary to hers.
To return to George Gifford : his intrigue in Paris was
carried on during the month of May 1583, at the end of
which month the Nuncio writes that it will come to nothing.
Before midsummer George was back at Elizabeth’s court
acting as Gentleman Pensioner, and drew his half a crown a
day, as ‘bourdwagis,’ for ‘four score and seventeen dayes,’
that is, for the whole summer quarter, 24 June to 28 Sep¬
tember 1583.2 He said nothing that we can trace about
his bogus plot. If he ever gave it up is unknown,
1 1 Trial for high treason seems in this reign to have been a formal but
certain means of destroying an obnoxious man. Nobody was, nor does
it appear how anyone possibly could be acquitted-’ J. Reeves, History
of English Law, ed. Finlason, 1869, iii. 810.
2 R.O., Exchequer of Receipt, Gentlemen Pensioners’ Rolls, no. 14.
The rolls for the three previous quarters are unfortunately wanting.
He continued to receive his pension while in the Tower, in 1586. Roll 17.