at. Next morning he graciously accepted
the regency and left his sister's prison with her kisses on his
lips.[78]

On the 2nd May, 1568, Mary escaped from Lochleven, and her brother at
once prepared a hostile force to meet her. Her army, composed largely of
Protestants, marched towards Dunbarton Castle, where they desired to
place the queen for safe keeping. The regent intercepted her at
Langside, and inflicted a complete defeat upon her forces. Mary was
again a fugitive, and her followers strongly urged her to take refuge in
France. But Elizabeth had given her a promise of protection, and Mary,
impelled by some fateful impulse, resolved to throw herself on the mercy
of her kinswoman.[79] On the 16th day of May, her little boat crossed
the Solway. When the Queen of Scots, the daughter of the House of Guise,
the widow of a monarch of the line of Valois, set foot on English soil
as a suppliant for the protection which came to her only by death, the
last faint hope must have faded out of the hearts of the few who still
longed for an independent Scotland, bound by gratitude and by ancient
tradition to the ally who, more than once, had proved its salvation.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 61: Cf. the present writer's "Mary, Queen of Scots" (Scottish
History from Contemporary Writers).]

[Footnote 62: The spelling "Stuart", which Queen Mary brought with her
from France, now superseded the older "Stewart".]

[Footnote 63: Foreign Calendar: Elizabeth, December 31st, 1560.]

[Footnote 64: _Cabala, Sive Scrinia Sacra_, pp. 345-349.]

[Footnote 65: Foreign Calendar, May 7th, 1562.]

[Footnote 66: Foreign Calendar, June 8th, 1562.]

[Footnote 67: Foreign Calendar, March 31st, 1561.]

[Footnote 68: Foreign Calendar, 20th August, 1563.]

[Footnote 69: Sir James Melville's _Memoirs_, pp. 116-130 (Bannatyne
Club).]

[Footnote 70: Laing's _Knox_, vi, p. 541.]

[Footnote 71: Laing's _Knox_, vol. ii, p. 513. Melville's _Memoirs_, p.
134.]

[Footnote 72: Foreign Calendar, July-December, 1565.]

[Footnote 73: The evidence for the scandal which associated Mary's name
with that of Rizzio will be found in Mr. Hay Fleming's _Mary, Queen of
Scots_, pp. 398-401. It is very far indeed from being conclusive.]

[Footnote 74: Foreign Calendar, March, 1566.]

[Footnote 75: Mary to Elizabeth, July, 1566. Keith's History, ii, p.
442.]

[Footnote 76: It is almost certain that Darnley was murdered before the
explosion.]

[Footnote 77: Mary