I hope my grandson will come to see me soon. Perhaps he will come for Christmas. I should like to see him then. He talks to me a great deal about the King and the Parliament and the troubles with the Church. He thinks that one day there will be a disagreement between the King and the Parliament, and he will not be on the side of the King.

I tell him that he talks like his father, recklessly. But in truth he is far from reckless.

He sits there before me, his arms folded, looking into the future.

How I hope that he comes this Christmas!

Early on Christmas morning in the year 1634, when her MAIDS  WENT  TO  HER  BEDROOM   IN  DRAYTON   BASSET   THEY FOUND HER AS THOUGH SLEEPING PEACEFULLY.

She was dead.

Leicester had died forty-six years before and Elizabeth thirty-one.

She was ninety-four years of age.

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