The mystery lies, of course, in the man's
identity. He has been held by some to have been the unfrocked
monk, Grishka Otropiev, by others to have been a son of Stephen
Bathory, King of Poland. I am not aware that the theory that he
was both at one and the same time has ever been put forward, and
whilst admitting that it is speculative, yet I claim that no
other would appear so aptly to fit all the known facts of his
career or to shed light upon its mysteries.
Undoubtedly I have allowed myself a good deal of licence and
speculation in treating certain unwitnessed scenes in "The
Barren Wooing." But the theory that I develop in it to account
for the miscarriage of the matrimonial plans of Queen Elizabeth
and Robert Dudley seems to me to be not only very fully warranted
by de Quadra's correspondence, but the only theory that will
convincingly explain the events. Elizabeth, as I show, was widely
believed to be an accessory to the murder of Amy Robsart. But in
carefully following her words and actions at that critical time,
as reported by de Quadra, my reading of the transaction is as
given here. The most damning fact against Elizabeth was held to
be her own statement to de Quadra on the eve of Lady Robert
Dudley's murder to the effect that Lady Robert was "already dead,
or very nearly so.
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