The Last Moments of Queen Elizabeth
by Paul Delaroche
(French artist, 1797-1856)
QUEEN ELIZABETH signed the death warrant of her
favorite, the Earl of Essex, with the greatest
reluctance; and after his execution she sank into a
profound melancholy. Her strength failed rapidly, and
all knew that her death could not be far away. She
refused to be carried to her bed, and for ten days the
great queen lay on the floor groaning and sighing. She
would not take the medicine which her physicians
prescribed, she would not cat, and she rarely spoke.
The Council were in session, and at length they sent
the Keeper, Admiral, and Secretary to learn her will in
regard to her successor. "I would have a king to
succeed me," she said faintly; and this was, of course,
interpreted to indicate the King of Scots. "Fix your
thoughts upon God," said the Archbishop of Canterbury
gently. "I do," she replied, "nor do they wander from
Him in the least." She soon closed her eyes in a deep
slumber, and from this she did not awake.
In the picture the queen is seen lying on the floor.
The royal ermine is about her, and she is adorned with
jewels, but her face is pinched and haggard with age
and with suffering. The three men sent by the Council
have just entered the apartment, and one of them,
kneeling beside her, is asking whom she will have to
succeed her.
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