king. Grange told him he should have a speedy answer; and returning to the lords, found little difficulty in persuading them of the propriety of his accepting the challenge, which he did without hesitation. Bothwell, however, thought it prudent to decline, on the plea that Kirkaldy being only a baron, was not his equal. To the laird of Tullibardine he objected on the same ground. The lord Lindsay then came forward, whom he could not refuse on the score of inequality; but he finally declined to engage. The queen then sent again for Grange, and proposed surrendering herself to the lords. Both well, in the mean time, made his escape. The queen holding out her hand, Kirkaldy kissed it, and taking her horse by the bridle turned him about, and led her down the hill. This was almost the full measure of Mary's humiliation, which was accomplished by her entry into Edinburgh amidst the execrations of the rabble. The lords, (particularly Kirkaldy) were still willing to treat her with kindness, if she could have been prevailed on to abandon Bothwell. The same night, however, she wrote a letter to him, calling him "her dear heart, whom she should never forget nor abandon, though she was under the necessity of being absent from him for a time;" adding, that she had sent him away only for his own safety, and willing him to be comforted, and to be watchful and take care of himself. This letter falling into the hands of the lords, convinced them that her passion for Bothwell was incurable; and they determined to secure her in Lochleven. Grange alone wished to excuse her, and hoped that gentle usage might yet reclaim her; but they showed him her letter to Bothwell which had fallen into their hands, which left him no room to speak more on her behalf. The queen, in the mean time, sent him a letter, lamenting her hard usage, and complaining of broken promises. He wrote to her in return, stating what he had already attempted in her behalf, and how his mouth had been stopped by her letter to Bothwell; "marvelling that her majesty considered not that the said earl could never be her lawful husband, being so lately before married to another, whom he had deserted without any just ground, even though he had not been so hated for the murder of the king her husband. He therefore requested her to dismiss him entirely from her mind, seeing otherwise that she could never obtain the love or respect of her subjects, nor have that obedience paid her which otherwise she might expect."
His letter contained many other loving and humble admonitions which made her bitterly to weep. Eager to free the queen and the nation of Bothwell, Grange most willingly accepted the command of two small vessels that had been fitted up from Morton's private purse (for Bothwell had not left a sufficient sum for the purpose in the Scottish treasury), with which he set sail towards Orkney, whither it was reported Bothwell had fled, He was accompanied by the laird of Tullibardine and Adam Bothwell, bishop of Orkney. Bothwell having made his escape from Orkney, was pursued by Grange to the coast of Norway, where, at the moment when they had almost overtaken the fugitive, the impetuosity of Kirkaldy, who called on the mariners to hoist more sail than the vessel was able to carry, lost them their prize, and they were wrecked on a sand bank. Bothwell escaped in a small boat to the shore, leaving his ship and his servants a prey to Kirkaldy. This unhappy man fled to Denmark, and the method of his end is too well known to be repeated.
The regent Moray was in the mean time establishing order and tranquillity generally through the country. The king, an infant, had been crowned at Stirling, and his authority in the person of the regent very generally acknowledged, when the queen, making her escape from Lochleven, and putting herself into the hands of the Hamiltons, created new and serious calamities. The regent being at that time in Glasgow, holding his justice-eyre, was just
