sures
which she had hitherto pursued. If she had not employed force against
the regent during the imprisonment of that princess, she had been
chiefly withheld by the fear of pushing him to greater extremities
against her;[**] but she had proposed to the court of France an
expedient, which, though less violent, would have been no less effectual
for her service: she desired that France and England should by concert
cut off all commerce with the Scots, till they should do justice to
their injured sovereign.[***]

* Keith, p. 475.

** Keith, p. 463. Cabala, p. 141.

*** Keith, p. 462.

She now despatched Leighton into Scotland to offer both her good
offices, and the assistance of her forces, to Mary; but as she
apprehended the entrance of French troops into the kingdom, she desired
that the controversy between the queen of Scots and her subjects might
by that princess be referred entirely to her arbitration, and that no
foreign succors should be introduced into Scotland.[*]

But Elizabeth had not leisure to exert fully her efforts in favor of
Mary. The regent made haste to assemble forces; and notwithstanding that
his army was inferior in number to that of the queen of Scots, he took
the field against her. A battle was fought at Langside, near Glasgow,
which was entirely decisive in favor of the regent; and though Murray,
after his victory, stopped the bloodshed, yet was the action followed
by a total dispersion of the queen's party. That unhappy princess fled
southwards from the field of battle with great precipitation, and came
with a few attendants to the borders of England. She here deliberated
concerning her next measures, which would probably prove so important to
her future happiness or misery. She found it impossible to remain in her
own kingdom: she had an aversion, in her present wretched condition,
to return into France, where she had formerly appeared with so much
splendor; and she was not, besides, provided with a vessel which could
safely convey her thither: the late generous behavior of Elizabeth made
her hope for protection, and even assistance, from that quarter;[**] and
as the present fears from her domestic enemies were the most urgent,
she overlooked all other considerations, and embraced the resolution
of taking shelter in England. She embarked on board a fishing-boat in
Galloway, and landed the same day at Workington, in Cumberland,
about thirty miles from Carlisle, whence she imme