ut also at the head
of a powerful confederacy, which counted at its head nine earls, eight
peers, nine bishops, and a number of barons and nobles renowned among the
bravest of Scotland.

The advice of the most judicious among those about the queen was to shut
herself up in the strong castle of Dumbarton, which, being impregnable,
would give all her adherents time to assemble together, distant and
scattered as they were: accordingly, the guidance of the troops who were
to conduct the queen to that town was entrusted to the Earl of Argyll,
and the 11th of May she took the road with an army of nearly ten thousand
men.

Murray was at Glasgow when he heard of the queen's escape: the place was
strong; he decided to hold it, and summoned to him his bravest and most
devoted partisans. Kirkcaldy of Grange, Morton, Lindsay of Byres, Lord
Lochleven, and William Douglas hastened to him, and six thousand of the
best troops in the kingdom gathered round them, while Lord Ruthven in the
counties of Berwick and Angus raised levies with which to join them.

The 13th May, Morton occupied from daybreak the village of Langside,
through which the queen must pass to get to Dumbarton. The news of the
occupation reached the queen as the two armies were yet seven miles
apart. Mary's first instinct was to escape an engagement: she remembered
her last battle at Carberry Hill, at the end of which she had been
separated from Bothwell and brought to Edinburgh; so she expressed aloud
this opinion, which was supported by George Douglas, who, in black
armour, without other arms, had continued at the queen's side.

"Avoid an engagement!" cried Lord Seyton, not daring to answer his
sovereign, and replying to George as if this opinion had originated with
him. "We could do it, perhaps, if we were one to ten; but we shall
certainly not do so when we are three to two. You speak a strange
tongue, my young master," continued he, with some contempt; "and you
forget, it seems to me, that you are a Douglas and that you speak to a
Seyton."

"My lord," returned George calmly, "when we only hazard the lives of
Douglases and Seytons, you will find me, I hope, as ready to fight as
you, be it one to ten, be it three to two; but we are now answerable for
an existence dearer to Scotland than that of all the Seytons and all the
Douglases. My advice is then to avoid battle."

"Battle! battle!" cried all the chieftains.

"You hear, madam?" said Lord Seyton to M