ELIZABETH

"Queen Elizabeth was awful. Beyond everything she was. When she came to
the turn she dyed her hair red, and whatever man she had to do with, she
sent him to the block in the morning, that he would be able to tell
nothing. She had an awful temper. She would throw a knife from the table
at the waiting ladies, and if anything vexed her she would maybe work
upon the floor. A thousand dresses she left after her. Very
superstitious she was. Sure after her death they found a card, the ace
of hearts, nailed to her chair under the seat. She thought she would
never die while she had it there. And she bought a bracelet from an old
woman out in Wales that was over a hundred years. It was superstition
made her do that, and they found it after her death tied about her
neck."


HER DEATH

"It was a town called Calais brought her to her death, and she lay
chained on the floor three days and three nights. The Archbishop was
trying to urge her to eat, but she said 'You would not ask me to do it
if you knew the way I am,' for nobody could see the chains. After her
death they waked her for six days in Whitehall, and there were six
ladies sitting beside the body every night. Three coffins were about
it, the one nearest the body of lead, and then a wooden one, and a
leaden one on the outside. And every night there came from them a great
bellow. And the last night there came a bellow that broke the three
coffins open, and tore the velvet, and there came out a stench that