in full flight before the army at the head of
which the prisoner who had slipped through their hands was returning
to destroy them. Too late did they perceive the arts by which she had
fooled them, and seduced the shallow Darnley to betray them.

II. THE NIGHT OF KIRK O' FIELD--The Murder of Darnley

Perhaps one of the greatest mistakes of a lifetime in which mistakes
were plentiful was the hesitancy of the Queen of Scots in executing upon
her husband Darnley the prompt vengeance she had sworn for the murder of
David Rizzio.

When Rizzio was slain, and she herself held captive by the murderers in
her Palace of Holyrood, whilst Darnley ruled as king, she had simulated
belief in her husband's innocence that she might use him for her
vengeful ends.

She had played so craftily upon his cowardly nature as to convince
him that Morton, Ruthven, and the other traitor lords with whom he had
leagued himself were at heart his own implacable enemies; that they
pretended friendship for him to make a tool of him, and that when he had
served their turn they would destroy him.

In his consequent terror he had betrayed his associates, assisting her
to trick them by a promise to sign an act of oblivion for what was
done. Trusting to this the lords had relaxed their vigilance, whereupon,
accompanied by Darnley, she had escaped by night from Holyrood.

Hope tempering at first the rage and chagrin in the hearts of the lords
she had duped, they had sent a messenger to her at Dunbar to request
of her the fulfilment of her promise to sign the document of their
security.

But Mary put off the messenger, and whilst the army she had summoned
was hastily assembling, she used her craft to divide the rebels against
themselves.

To her natural brother, the Earl of Murray, to Argyll, and to all those
who had been exiled for their rebellion at the time of her marriage--and
who knew not where they stood in the present turn of events, since
one of the objects of the murder had been to procure their
reinstatement--she sent an offer of complete pardon, on condition that
they should at once dissociate themselves from those concerned in the
death of the Seigneur Davie.

These terms they accepted thankfully, as well they might. Thereupon,
finding themselves abandoned by all men--even by Darnley in whose
service they had engaged in the murder--Morton, Ruthven, and their
associates scattered and fled.

By the end of that month of March, Mo