enraged at his own cowardice, ordered
a soldier to fire upon him; but this time Mary herself interposed,
forbidding him under pain of death to offer the least violence. In the
meanwhile, as the imprudent order given by Bothwell spread through the
army, such murmurs burst forth that he clearly saw that his cause was
for ever lost.

That is what the queen thought also; for the result of her conference
with Lord Kirkcaldy was that she should abandon Bothwell's cause, and
pass over into the camp of the Confederates, on condition that
they would lay down their arms before her and bring her as queen to
Edinburgh. Kirkcaldy left her to take these conditions to the nobles,
and promised to return next day with a satisfactory answer. But at the
moment of leaving Bothwell, Mary was seized again with that fatal love
for him that she was never able to surmount, and felt herself overcome
with such weakness, that, weeping bitterly, and before everyone,
she wanted Kirkcaldy to be told that she broke off all negotiations;
however, as Bothwell had understood that he was no longer safe in camp,
it was he who insisted that things should remain as they were; and,
leaving Mary in tears, he mounted, and setting off at full speed, he did
not stop till he reached Dunbar.

Next day, at the time appointed, the arrival of Lord Kirkcaldy of Grange
was announced by the trumpeters preceding him. Mary mounted directly
and went to meet him; them, as he alighted to greet her, "My lord;" said
she, "I surrender to you, on the conditions that you have proposed to
me on the part of the nobles, and here is my hand as a sign of entire
confidence". Kirkcaldy then knelt down, kissed, the queen's hand
respectfully; and, rising, he took her horse by the bridle and led it
towards the Confederates' camp.

Everyone of any rank in the army received her with such marks of respect
as entirely to satisfy her; but it was not so at all with the soldiers
and common people. Hardly had the queen reached the second line, formed
by them, than great murmurs arose, and several voices cried, "To the
stake, the adulteress! To the stake, the parricide!" However, Mary bore
these outrages stoically enough but a more terrible trial yet was in
store for her. Suddenly she saw rise before her a banner, on which
was depicted on one side the king dead and stretched out in the fatal
garden, and on the other the young prince kneeling, his hands joined
and his eyes raised to heaven, with