t the head of such of her countrymen as
still owned her allegiance.

Several leading nobles flocked hastily to her standard; a bond was
entered into for her defence, and in a few days she saw herself at the
head of six thousand men. Elizabeth made her an immediate offer of
troops and succour, stipulating however, from a prudent jealousy of the
French, that no foreign forces should be admitted into Scotland; and
further, that all disputes between Mary and her subjects should be
submitted to her arbitration.

Fortunately for Scotland, though disastrously for the future days of
Mary and the fame of Elizabeth, this formidable rising in favor of the
deposed sovereign was crushed at a single blow. Murray, with inferior
forces, marched courageously against the queen, gained a complete and
easy victory, and compelled her to a hasty flight.

Accompanied only by a few attendants, the defeated princess reached the
English border. What should she do? Behind her was the hostile army,
acting in the name of her son to whom she had signed an abdication of
the throne, in virtue of which her late attempt to reinstate herself
might lawfully be visited with the rigors of perpetual imprisonment, or
even with death itself.

Before her lay the dominions of a princess whose titles she had once
usurped, and whose government she had never ceased to molest by her
intrigues,--of one who had hated her as a competitor in power and in
beauty,--as an enemy in religion, and most of all as the heiress of her
crown. But this very princess had interfered, generously interfered, to
save her life; she had shown herself touched by her situation; she had
offered her, under certain conditions, succours and protection. Perhaps
she would no longer remember in the suppliant who embraced her knees,
the haughty rival who had laid claim to her crown;--perhaps she would
show herself a real friend. The English people too,--could they behold
unmoved "a queen, a beauty," hurled from her throne, chased from her
country by the rude hands of her rebellious subjects, and driven to
implore their aid? No surely,--ten thousand swords would spring from
their scabbards to avenge her injuries;--so she hoped, so she reasoned;
for merited misfortune had not yet impaired her courage or abated her
confidence, nor had the sense of guilt impressed upon her mind one
lesson of humility. Her situation, also, admitted of no other
alternative than to confide herself to Elizabeth or surr