ity would be attacked by the English if they
should conquer in the battle. The English army did, in fact, advance
toward Edinburgh after the battle was over, and would have got
possession of it had it not been for the castle. There is a very
strong castle in the very heart of Edinburgh, upon the summit of a
rocky hill.[A]

[Footnote A: See the view of Edinburgh, page 179.]

These attempts of the English to force the Scotch government to
consent to Mary's marriage only made them the more determined to
prevent it. A great many who were not opposed to it before, became
opposed to it now when they saw foreign armies in the country
destroying the towns and murdering the people. They said they had no
great objection to the match, but that they did not like the mode of
wooing. They sent to France to ask the French king to send over an
army to aid them, and promised him that if he would do so they would
agree that Mary should marry _his_ son. His son's name was Francis.

The French king was very much pleased with this plan. He sent an army
of six thousand men into Scotland to assist the Scotch against their
English enemies. It was arranged, also, as little Mary was now hardly
safe among all these commotions, even in her retreat in the island of
Inchmahome, to send her to France to be educated there, and to live
there until she was old enough to be married. The same ships which
brought the army from France to Scotland, were to carry Mary and her
retinue from Scotland to France. The four Maries went with her.

They bade their lonely island farewell, and traveled south till they
came to a strong castle on a high, rocky hill, on the banks of the
River Clyde. The name of this fortress is Dumbarton Castle. Almost
all the castles of those times were built upon precipitous hills, to
increase the difficulties of the enemies in approaching them. The
Rock of Dumbarton is a very remarkable one. It stands close to the
bank of the river. There are a great many ships and steam-boats
continually passing up and down the Clyde, to and from the great city
of Glasgow, and all the passengers on board gaze with great interest,
as they sail by, on the Rock of Dumbarton, with the castle walls on
the sides, and the towers and battlements crowning the summit. In
Mary's time there was comparatively very little shipping on the
river, but the French fleet was there, waiting opposite the castle to
receive Mary and the numerous persons who were to go in