have remained in the castle of Lochleven, dull prison as
it was, with the rippling of the lake against it, and the moving shadows
of the water on the room walls; but she could not rest there, and more
than once tried to escape. The first time she had nearly succeeded,
dressed in the clothes of her own washer-woman, but, putting up her hand
to prevent one of the boatmen from lifting her veil, the men suspected
her, seeing how white it was, and rowed her back again. A short time
afterwards, her fascinating manners enlisted in her cause a boy in the
Castle, called the little DOUGLAS, who, while the family were at supper,
stole the keys of the great gate, went softly out with the Queen, locked
the gate on the outside, and rowed her away across the lake, sinking the
keys as they went along. On the opposite shore she was met by another
Douglas, and some few lords; and, so accompanied, rode away on horseback
to Hamilton, where they raised three thousand men. Here, she issued a
proclamation declaring that the abdication she had signed in her prison
was illegal, and requiring the Regent to yield to his lawful Queen. Being
a steady soldier, and in no way discomposed although he was without an
army, Murray pretended to treat with her, until he had collected a force
about half equal to her own, and then he gave her battle. In one quarter
of an hour he cut down all her hopes. She had another weary ride on
horse-back of sixty long Scotch miles, and took shelter at Dundrennan
Abbey, whence she fled for safety to Elizabeth's dominions.

Mary Queen of Scots came to England--to her own ruin, the trouble of the
kingdom, and the misery and death of many--in the year one thousand five
hundred and sixty-eight. How she left it and the world, nineteen years
afterwards, we have now to see.

SECOND PART

When Mary Queen of Scots arrived in England, without money and even
without any other clothes than those she wore, she wrote to Elizabeth,
representing herself as an innocent and injured piece of Royalty, and
entreating her assistance to oblige her Scottish subjects to take her
back again and obey her. But, as her character was already known in
England to be a very different one from what she made it out to be, she
was told in answer that she must first clear herself. Made uneasy by
this condition, Mary, rather than stay in England, would have gone to
Spain, or to France, or would even have gone back to Scotland. But, as
her