Murray was shocked, and had his brother expelled the castle; but in
April 1568 the faithful George planned her evasion of the guard and
joyfully welcomed her on the shore of the lake. To her standard flocked
the Catholic lords, and, safe at Hamilton, Mary, again a queen, swore
vengeance upon her foes. On her way with her army to Dumbarton she met
Murray's force at Langside, near Glasgow. She had been strong at
Carberry Hill with Bothwell at her side. Here she was weak, for no man
of weight or character was with her, and as her men wavered she turned
rein and fled.

For sixty miles on bad roads she struggled on, almost without sleep, and
living on beggar's fare. With no adviser or woman near her, in her panic
and despair she took the fatal resolve and crossed the Solway into
Elizabeth's realm, trusting to the magnanimity of the woman whom she had
tried to ruin and supplant. Again her heart had deceived her. Elizabeth
had no pity for a vanquished foe, and for the rest of her miserable
life, well nigh a score of years, Mary Stuart was a prisoner. But in all
those years she never ceased to plot and plan for the overthrow of
Elizabeth and her own elevation to the Catholic throne of all Britain.

Amidst her many weapons, that of marriage and her personal fascination
were not forgotten. Twice, at least, she tried to make her love affairs
serve her political ambition. Poor, feckless Norfolk was drawn by his
vanity and ambition into her net. Love epistles, breathing eternal
devotion, passed between them, but murder was behind it all--the murder
of Elizabeth, and the subjection of England to Spain to work Mary's
vengeance on her foes, and Norfolk lost his head deservedly.

Again she dreamed of marrying the Christian champion, Don Juan of