God Save the Queen

“ O God, who seest the tears Thy children weep,
O God, who countest each sad heart-beat, see
How our King needs the grace we ask of Thee!
Thou knowest how little and how vain a thing
Is Empire, when the heart is sick with pain—
God, save the King!
The Queen is dead. The splendour of her days,
The sorrow of them both alike merge now
In the new aureole that lights her brow.
The clamour of her people's voice in praise
Must hush itself to the still voice that prays
In the holy chamber of Death. Tread softly here,
A mighty Queen lies dead. ”

“ God save him from the smiling mouth which carries a poisonous tongue, from the false heart which offers the open hand! These are the enemies against which mighty armies are of no avail, and cannons thunder in vain. These are not fair foes; they do not march out on the open field; they are cowards who shun discovery. God save the King! Again and yet again we offer up this prayer, kneeling among the flowers which cover our greatest Queen’s last resting-place. ”

“ ETERNAL God, and our most mighty Protector, we thy unworthy servants do humbly present ourselves before thy Majesty, acknowledging thy power, wisdom, and goodness, in preserving the Queen from the destruction intended against her. ”

“ Hence, there is still hope, and that hope may be further strengthened if we but have recourse to Mary, the Mother of God, Queen of this nation, Queen of all nations, Queen of Peace. On bended knee, we ask thee, O Mary, to have compassion on a war-sick, weary, confused world. We are willing to undergo our daily Calvary, if you will but tap for us the eternal well-spring of Redemption and let flow the rivulets of grace on your sons and daughters who have forgotten their Creator and Redeemer, the true source of all help and strength. ”

“ And perhaps her dread of death, points us to the real source of these faults, for it seems to indicate that Queen Elizabeth had not been so earnest in seeking God's grace, and the influence of His Holy Spirit, as she ought to have been, to preserve her from evil in this life, as well as to prepare her for the future life where there will be no evil, in the kingdom of the "King of kings and Lord of lords," the happy realm of Jesus. ”

“ I could only kneel and humbly pray, both night and day, to the good God on high that lie would wake the ear of our gracious Queen to hear the pitiful cry of these poor defenceless creatures, over whom he has given her an empire, and power, and glory, and who, though they are so far from her, are yet her loyal subjects, and very near to the great God Himself, in whose hand her breath is, and whose are all her ways. ”

“ After the severest interior trials, days spent in tears, fasting, and the most earnest petitions to the throne of Divine grace, the queen received strength to consummate the sacrifice demanded from her. Naturally ardent and impulsive, and at an age when every sentiment is freshest and most keen, she was called upon to extirpate from her heart an affection not only deep but legitimate, to inflict a wound on the object of her tenderest love, and, finally, to transfer her devotion to one whom she had hitherto regarded with feelings of unqualified aversion. ”

“ The Bishop said, “They will not deliver the Queen to thee, Lord, excepting thou wilt declare upon thine honor that no harm shall befall her.{194} For it is said of all that the life of the Queen is in danger from thee. Yet she is an honorable lady and as pure to thee as the day upon which she came to thee. For she is free from sin or from guilt of any sort. Wherefore, unless thou wilt declare that no harm shall befall the life of the Queen and wilt declare that same in writing, she will not be returned, but otherwise they will lay down their lives to guard her safety.” ”

“ O HOLY Mary, our sovereign Queen! as God the Father by his omnipotence hast made thee most powerful, deign to assist us at the hour of our death, by defending us against all power that is contrary to thine. ”

“ This makes that I do not so much rejoice that God hath made me to be a Queen, as to be a Queen over so thankful a people, and to be the means under God to conserve you in safety and preserve you from danger, yea, to be the instrument to deliver you from dishonour, from shame, and from infamy ”

“ Since then it is most certain that the queen must die, and our safety and happiness in this nation depends so much upon the stability of our liberties, religion, and aforesaid dependencies after her majesty's life shall end, it cannot be a question offensive to any who has any concern in the public good, to inquire into what shall be the state of our condition, or the posture of our affairs, when the queen shall die ”

“ But still, when we look back upon those dear privileges, the obtaining of which has cost so much money, and the maintaining of which has cost so much blood, we must with a deep sigh reflect upon the precarious circumstances of the nation, whose best privileges hang uncertain upon the nice and tender thread of royal mortality, and say we are happy while these last, and these may last while her majesty shall live. But what if the queen should die? ”

“ She will feel every day and every night that she is a transgressor, and will vainly seek consolation by telling herself that men have pardoned that which God has condemned.' And again she broke forth. 'The Queen's pardon! What right has the Queen to pardon an adulterer who has crept into the bosom of a family and destroyed all that he found there? What sense of justice can any Queen have in her bosom who will send such a one back, to heap sin upon sin, to fasten the bonds of iniquity on the soul of my child?' Postage-stamps and postmarks and an old envelope! ”

“ Well, my lords, bear witness that I die in the Catholic faith, thanking God for letting me die for His holy cause, and protesting, to-day as every day, in public as in private, that I have never plotted, consented to, nor desired the queen’s death, nor any other thing against her person; but that, on the contrary, I have always loved her, and have always offered her good and reasonable conditions to put an end to the troubles of the kingdom and deliver me from my captivity, without my having ever been honoured with a reply from her ”

“ May God in His infinite mercy prevent a still worse treatment. Meanwhile, the Princess, prudent and virtuous as she naturally is, has taken all these things with patience, trusting entirely in God’s mercy and goodness. She has addressed to her mother, the Queen, a most wonderful letter, full of consolation and comfort. ”

“ As divers ill-disposed persons about Her Majesty have, by their crafty dealing, overthrown in this realm the true and Catholic religion towards God,{50} abused [22] the Queen, dishonoured the realm, and now seek to procure the destruction of this nobility, we have gathered ourselves together to resist force by force, and rather, by the help of God and you good people, to redress those things amiss, with the restoring of all ancient customs and liberties to God and this noble realm. ”

“ If she should not be well received, seeing this kingdom may rightly have a kingdom by her means, her present love to us and Christianity might turn to such scorn and fury as to divert all this good to the worst of evil; where, finding so great a queen should do her some honour more than she can imagine, for being so kind to your servants and subjects, would so ravish her with content, as endear her dearest blood to effect that Your Majesty and all the king's honest subjects most earnestly desire. ”

“ We can well enough understand why an English Elizabeth, Virgin Queen, as history labels her, could not lie still for a moment, agitated as she must have been by a storm of remorseful recollections, nor restrain her shrieks of horror long enough even to listen to a prayer. But how often does it happen that “the wicked has no bands in his death;” and the awful example of deep despair in the Stainless One, who cried out in his agony that he was forsaken of God, should serve to deter us from the daily repeated and shocking rashness of the decisions against which I am now appealing. ”

“ To read the Coronation Ode, written for the Sheffield Working Men's Association, and to compare it with the profound feeling which ran through the nation at the death of the Queen, is to realise this change. If the people had been suffering even half as bitterly as they were suffering when the Queen was crowned, nothing like that which we have seen when she died could have taken place. ”

“ The Queen, on the contrary, by her death, rescued her young nation from a war of slavery—gave it additional power by her farewell wisdom, pronounced from the Altar destined to receive her ashes,—bound her tried and faithful Tyrians to elect their Rulers from the scrolls of Intellect only,—the fulness of patriotism was accomplished,—and as the steel pierced her heart, Nature never received a last sigh from a nobler victim! ”

“ By command of the King and Queen I write to assure you that the hearts of their Majesties go out to you in your bitter sorrow, and to express their horror at the appalling deed which has robbed you of your child. Men and women throughout the civilized world, while sympathizing with you, are moved with admiration and awe at her faith and courage in death. ”

“ Indeed, Miss P., when I consider Her Majesty's complicated suffering,--increased as it was to misery by attacks from quarters whence only love and duty might have been expected, harassed by politics and cabals, torn by national and foreign dissension, herself deprived of all protection, and yet protecting with almost masculine fortitude a beloved husband and King,--I say with all my heart that to have attained such heights of courage, resignation, and ability, is much, much more than to be Queen of England, or possessed of the most shining genius the world has known. ”

“ Go, bid the queen look at the strange providence that picked her out among her people, that placed her on the throne, that set her by the side of the despot in whose hands the fate of her people is held, and then bid her ask whether she thinks God did that deed out of partial, indulgent favour of her petty self, or whether it is not clear as noontide that just for this hour of peril, and of danger, and of death, to be the redeemer and the saviour of the Jews, God gave her that dignity and set her on the throne. ”

“ To be a king and wear a crown is a thing more glorious to them that see it than it is pleasant to them that bear it. For myself I was never so much enticed with the glorious name of a King or royal authority of a Queen as delighted that God hath made me his instrument to maintain his truth and glory and to defend his kingdom as I said from peril, dishonour, tyranny and oppression. There will never Queen sit in my seat with more zeal to my country, care to my subjects and that will sooner with willingness venture her life for your good and safety than myself. ”

“ It is absolutely needful that we should openly prove this woman to be what we know her to be in secret. Her Majesty's life will never be safe for a moment while she lives; and what would become of us all did she overlive the Queen! ”

“ Everybody, moreover, had told him of the King’s kindliness and simplicity, his desire for peace, and his passion for sport, solitude, and the open air, which, amidst the worries of power, must often have made him dream of a life of freedom far from the imperious duties of royalty for which he seemed unfitted.* But the Queen was yet more tenderly loved. ”

“ You shall breathe its perfume, when you think not, and you shall die. Little by little your blood shall dry in your veins, and your fair, white skin shall shrivel and hang loose. Your eyes shall lose their 200lustre. You shall have pity, perchance, but love shall pass you by. Day by day you will wither. You will seek for death, and death will come all too slowly. Yet in the end, that also shall come, and with it the first and last mercy that shall be rendered to you from the hands of Lah, the Queen—’
“Then she left me—”
“And you awoke,” said I, half-smiling, as one comforting a child. ”

“ A brief space has passed away like a cloud, and we have seen her a captive whom we saw in triumph,—a prisoner, who set the prisoners free,—poor, who gave away so liberally,—disdained, who was the fountain of honour. We have seen her, who was a two-fold Queen, in the hands of a common executioner, and that fair form, which graced the nuptial couch of the greatest monarch in Christendom, dishonoured on a scaffold. We have seen that loveliness, which was one of the wonders of the world, broken down by long captivity, and at length effaced by an ignominious death. ”

“ To beseech God to send her His Holy Spirit, and that she trusted to receive her salvation in His blood, and of His grace to be received into His kingdom. She besought God to forgive her enemies as she forgave them, and to turn His wrath from this Island, to bless the Queen's Majesty that she might serve Him, likewise to be merciful to her son, and to have compassion of His afflicted Church, and though she was not worthy to be heard, yet she had a confidence in His mercy, and prayed all the saints to pray unto her Saviour to receive her. ”

“ The sex, the youth, the accomplishments, the graces, the past misfortunes of the princess, all served to heighten the interest with which she was beheld: the age of chivalry had not yet expired; and in spite of the late unfortunate experience of a female reign, the romantic image of a maiden queen dazzled all eyes, subdued all hearts, inflamed the imaginations of the brave and courtly youth with visions of love and glory, exalted into a passionate homage the principle of loyalty, and urged adulation to the very brink of idolatry. ”