very spot where those
marksmen are making such quick firing."

"Poor child!" cried the queen; "if ill should befall him, I shall never
console myself."

"Alas! madam," replied Douglas, "I greatly fear that his first battle
is his last, and that everything is already over for him; for, unless I
mistake, there is his horse returning riderless."

"Oh, my God! my God!" said the queen, weeping, and raising her hands to
heaven, "it is then decreed that I should be fatal to all around me!"

George was not deceived: it was William's horse coming back without his
young master and covered with blood.

"Madam," said Douglas, "we are ill placed here; let us gain that hillock
on which is the Castle of Crookstone: from thence we shall survey the
whole battlefield."

"No, not there! not there!" said the queen in terror: "within that
castle I came to spend the first days of my marriage with Darnley; it
will bring me misfortune."

"Well, beneath that yew-tree, then," said George, pointing to another
slight rise near the first; "but it is important for us to lose no
detail of this engagement. Everything depends perhaps for your Majesty
on an ill-judged manoeuvre or a lost moment."

"Guide me, then," the queen said; "for, as for me, I no longer see
it. Each report of that terrible cannonade echoes to the depths of my
heart."

However well placed as was this eminence for overlooking from its summit
the whole battlefield, the reiterated discharge of cannon and musketry
covered it with such a cloud of smoke that it was impossible to make out
from it anything but masses lost amid a murderous fog. At last, when an
hour had passed in this desperate conflict, through the skirts of this
sea of smoke the fugitives were seen to emerge and disperse in all
directions, followed by the victors. Only, at that distance, it was
impossible to make out who had gained or lost the battle, and the
banners, which on both sides displayed the Scottish arms, could in no
way clear up this confusion.

At that moment there was seen coming down from the Glasgow hillsides all
the remaining reserve of Murray's army; it was coming at full speed to
engage in the fighting; but this manoeuvre might equally well have for
its object the support of defeated friends as to complete the rout of
the enemy. However, soon there was no longer any doubt; for this reserve
charged the fugitives, amid whom it spread fresh confusion. The queen's
army was beaten. At the same