Note 104 — HISTORY (continued 2)

In Mr. Croker’s translation we find the following: “It really requires the concurrent testimony of all writers to make us believe that the queen of England was forced by ‘those meddling priests’ to walk in penance to Tyburn, and there on her knees, under the gibbet, glorify the blessed martyrs of the Gunpowder Plot” (pp. 3, 4). The passage contains several inaccuracies. In the first place, the testimony of all writers was not concurrent, as is shown in the text; next, it was not charged that the Queen “glorified” the martyrs, but that she prayed for their souls; finally, “the blessed martyrs of the Gunpowder Plot” do not come into the story, as not one of them was executed at Tyburn.

There exists a rare print, often reproduced, of the supposed scene. It is of much later date and has no value whatever as evidence.