; "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 Mary Stuart: "I believe that
to wish to act against such unanimity would be dangerous. In Scotland,
madam, there is an ancient proverb which has it that 'there is most
prudence in courage.'"

"But have you not heard that the regent has taken up an advantageous
position?" the queen said.

"The greyhound hunts the hare on the hillside as well as in the plain,"
replied Seyton: "we will drive him out, wherever he is."

"Let it be as you desire, then, my lords. It shall not be said that Mary
Stuart returned to the scabbard the sword her defenders had drawn for
her."

Then, turning round to Douglas

"George," she said to him, "choose a guard of twenty men for me, and
take command of them: you will not quit me."

George bent low in obedience, chose twenty from among the bravest men,
placed the queen in their midst, and put himself at their head; then the
troops, which had halted, received the order to continue their road. In
two hours' time the advance guard was in sight of the enemy; it halted,
and the rest of the army rejoined it.

The queen's troops then found themselves parallel with the city of
Glasgow, and the heights which rose in front of them were already
occupied by a force above which floated, as above that of Mary, the
royal banners of Scotland, On the other side, and on the opposite
slope, stretched the village of Langside, encircled with enclosures and
gardens. The road which led to it, and which followed all the variations
of the ground, narrowed at one place in such a way that two men could
hardly pass abreast, then, farther on, lost itself in a ravine, beyond
which it reappeared, then branched into two, of which one climbed to the
village of Langside, while the other led to Glasgow.

On seeing the lie of the ground, the Earl of Argyll immediately
comprehended the importance of occupying this village, and, turning to
Lord Seyton, he ordered him to gallop off and try to arrive there
before the enem