y, who doubtless, having made the same observation as the
commander of the royal forces, was setting in motion at that very moment
a considerable body of cavalry.

Lord Seyton called up his men directly, but while he was ranging them
round his banner, Lord Arbroath drew his sword, and approaching the Earl
of Argyll--

"My lord," said he, "you do me a wrong in charging Lord Seyton to
seize that post: as commander of the vanguard, it is to me this honour
belongs. Allow me, then, to use my privilege in claiming it."

"It is I who received the order to seize it; I will seize it!" cried
Seyton.

"Perhaps," returned Lord Arbroath, "but not before me!"

"Before you and before every Hamilton in the world!" exclaimed Seyton,
putting his horse to the gallop and rushing down into the hollow road--

"Saint Bennet! and forward!"

"Come, my faithful kinsmen!" cried Lord Arbroath, dashing forward on
his side with the same object; "come, my men-at-arms! For God and the
queen!"

The two troops precipitated themselves immediately in disorder and ran
against one another in the narrow way, where, as we have said, two men
could hardly pass abreast. There was a terrible collision there, and
the conflict began among friends who should have been united against the
enemy. Finally, the two troops, leaving behind them some corpses stifled
in the press, or even killed by their companions, passed through the
defile pell-mell and were lost sight of in the ravine. But during this
struggle Seyton and Arbroath had lost precious time, and the detachment
sent by Murray, which had taken the road by Glasgow, had reached the
village beforehand; it was now necessary not to take it, but to retake
it.

Argyll saw that the whole day's struggle would be concentrated there,
and, understanding more and more the importance of the village,
immediately put himself at the head of the body of his army, commanding
a rearguard of two thousand men to remain there and await further orders
to take part in the fighting. But whether the captain who commanded them
had ill understood, or whether he was eager to distinguish himself in
the eyes of the queen, scarcely had Argyll vanished into the ravine, at
the end of which the struggle had already commenced between Kirkcaldy of
Grange and Morton on the one side, and on the other between Arbroath and
Seyton, than, without regarding the cries of Mary Stuart, he set off
in his turn at a gallop, leaving the queen without o