[Illustration: TOWN HALL, SHEFFIELD]
V
We were not there, though, for others' labor or leisure, which we
have plenty of at home; but even before I appeased such
conscience as I had about seeing a type of the works, we went a
long drive up out of the town to that Manor where the poor,
brilliant, baddish Scotch queen was imprisoned by her brilliant,
baddish English cousin. In any question of goodness, there was
little to choose between them; both were blood-stained liars; but
it is difficult being a good woman and a queen too, and they only
failed where few have triumphed. Mary is the more appealing to
the fancy because she suffered beyond her deserts, but Elizabeth
was to be pitied because Mary had made it politically imperative
for her to kill her. All this we had threshed out many times
before, and had said that, cat for cat, Mary was the more
dangerous because she was the more feminine, and Elizabeth the
more detestable because she was the more masculine in her
ferocity. We were therefore in the right mood to visit Mary's
prison, and we were both indignant and dismayed to find that our
driver, called from a mews at a special price set upon his
intelligence, had never heard of it and did not know where it
was.
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