Instead, she told her secretary to order Walsingham to write a letter in his own name to Paulet, asking him to do away with Mary without a warrant. Paulet was to act on his own initiative, just because he had been told it was a good idea. Elizabeth wanted Mary dead, but without taking any of the responsibility. Paulet had been among the first to sign the Bond of Association, and this letter from Walsingham was to serve as the “direction” referred to by the Act for the Queen’s Safety. And yet if Paulet acted on it, he would kill Mary as a private citizen, with all the risks that entailed.
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