rray, with his character, was not a man to content himself with a
barren title, while the estates which were crown property since the
extinction of the male branch of the old earls, had been gradually
encroached upon by powerful neighbours, among whom was the famous Earl
of Huntly, whom we have already mentioned: the result was that, as the
queen judged that in this quarter her orders would probably encounter
opposition, under pretext of visiting her possessions in the north, she
placed herself at the head of a small army, commanded by her brother,
the Earl of Mar and Murray.

The Earl of Huntly was the less duped by the apparent pretext of this
expedition, in that his son, John Cordon, for some abuse of his
powers, had just been condemned to a temporary imprisonment. He,
notwithstanding, made every possible submission to the queen, sending
messengers in advance to invite-her to rest in his castle; and following
up the messengers in person, to renew his invitation viva voce.
Unfortunately, at the very moment when he was about to join the queen,
the governor of Inverness, who was entirely devoted to him, was refusing
to allow Mary to enter this castle, which was a royal one. It is true
that Murray, aware that it does not do to hesitate in the face of such
rebellions, had already had him executed for high treason.

This new act of firmness showed Huntly that the young queen was
not disposed to allow the Scottish lords a resumption of the almost
sovereign power humbled by her father; so that, in spite of the
extremely kind reception she accorded him, as he learned while in camp
that his son, having escaped from prison, had just put himself at
the head of his vassals, he was afraid that he should be thought, as
doubtless he was, a party to the rising, and he set out the same night
to assume command of his troops, his mind made up, as Mary only had with
her seven to eight thousand men, to risk a battle, giving out, however,
as Buccleuch had done in his attempt to snatch James V from the hands of
the Douglases, that it was not at the queen he was aiming, but solely
at the regent, who kept her under his tutelage and perverted her good
intentions.

Murray, who knew that often the entire peace of a reign depends on the
firmness one displays at its beginning, immediately summoned all the
northern barons whose estates bordered on his, to march against Huntly.
All obeyed, for the house of Cordon was already so powerful that each