ire for peace and anxiety to prevent
dissensions, all which was, no doubt, true enough, though the
chroniclers treat her protestations with little faith, declaring her to
have "very craftilie dissembled" in order to dispel any suspicion the
Chancellor may have entertained. It would seem that she had not borne
any friendship to him beforehand, and that her show of friendship now
required explanation. However that might be, she succeeded in persuading
Crichton of her good faith, and was allowed to have free intercourse
with her son and regain her natural place in his affections. How long
they had been separated there is no evidence to show, but it could
scarcely be difficult for the mother to recover, even had it fallen into
forgetfulness, the affection of her child. When she had remained long
enough in the castle to disarm any prejudices Crichton might entertain
of her, and to persuade the little King to the device which was to
secure his freedom, the Queen informed the Chancellor that she was about
to make a pilgrimage to the famous shrine of Whitekirk, "the white kirk
of Brechin," Pitscottie says, in order to pray for the repose of the
soul of her husband and the prosperity of her son, and asked permission
to carry away two coffers with her clothes and ornaments, probably
things which she had left in the castle before her widowhood, and that
means of conveyance might be provided for these possessions to Leith,
where she was to embark. This simple request was easily granted, and the
two coffers carried out of the castle, and conveyed by "horss" to the
ship in which she herself embarked with her few attendants. But instead
of turning northward Queen Jane's ship sailed up the Firth, through the
narrow strait at Queensferry, past Borrowstounness, where the great
estuary widens out once more, into the quiet waters of the Forth,
winding through the green country to Stirling on its hill. She was "a
great pairt of the watter upward before ever the keepers of the castle
could perceive themselves deceived," says Pitscottie. As the ship neared
Stirling, the Governor of the kingdom came out of the castle with all
his forces, with great joy and triumph, and received the King and his
mother. For one of the coffers, so carefully packed and accounted for,
contained no less an ornament than the little King in person, to whose
childish mind no doubt this mode of transport was a delightful device
and pleasantry. One can imagine how the Que