TheCodeBreakers
saying he was going to pay the bar bill and leaving his cloak and sword
on the back of his chair, he slipped out and escaped. The hue and cry set
up by his pursuers panicked the six young men. They fled for their lives,
but within a month both they and Babington were caught and
condemned to death after a two-day trial. Before they were executed, the
authorities prudently extracted from Babington the cipher alphabets he
had used with Mary.
These, and Mary's letters, served as thoroughly incriminatory
evidence in the Star Chamber proceedings that convicted her of high
treason. Mary received the announcement that Elizabeth had signed her
death warrant with majestic tranquillity, and at eight on the morning of
February 8, 1587, after eloquently reiterating her innocence and praying
aloud for her church, for Elizabeth, for her son, and for all her enemies,
mounted the platform with solemn dignity, knelt, and received the
axeman's three strokes with the courage that had marked every other
annaabi.ee 
