The inquiry was shifted to London in December, Mary always being refused permission to appear and speak for herself; nay, she was not allowed even to see the letters which she was accused of having written.

Her own Commissioners, Lord Herries and Bishop Lesley, who (as Mary knew in Herries's case) had no faith in her innocence, showed their want of confidence by proposing a compromise; this was not admitted.

Morton explained how he got the silver casket with the fatal letters, poems to Bothwell, and other papers; they were read in translations, English and Scots; handwritings were compared, with no known result; evidence was heard, and Elizabeth, at last, merely decided--that she could not admit Mary to her presence.
The English Lords agreed, "as the case does now stand," and presently many of them were supporting Norfolk in his desire to marry the accused.
Murray was told (January 10, 1669) that he had proved nothing which could make Elizabeth "take any evil opinion of the queen, her good sister," nevertheless, Elizabeth would support him in his government of Scotland, while declining to recognise James VI.

as king.
All compromises Mary now utterly refused: she would live and die a queen.
Henceforth the tangled intrigues cannot be disengaged in a work of this scope.

Elizabeth made various proposals to Mary, all involving her resignation as queen, or at least the suspension of her rights.