the Johnstones, Jardines, and clans of Annandale entered into bonds of
confederacy. But Liddesdale was under the influence of England; in so
much, that Randolph, the English minister, proposed to hire a band of
_strapping Elliots_, to find Home business at home, in looking after
his corn and cattle.--_Keith_, p. 265. _App_. 133.

This storm was hardly overblown, when Bothwell received the commission
of lieutenant upon the borders; but, as void of parts as of principle,
he could not even recover to the queen's allegiance his own domains
in Liddesdale.--_Keith, App_. 165. The queen herself advanced to the
borders, to remedy this evil, and to hold courts at Jedburgh. Bothwell
was already in Liddesdale, where he had been severely wounded, in an
attempt to seize John Elliot, of the Parke, a desperate freebooter;
and happy had it been for Mary, had the dagger of the moss-trooper
struck more home. Bothwell being transported to his castle of
Hermitage, the queen, upon hearing the tidings, hastened thither, A
dangerous morass, still called the _Queen's Mire_[22], is pointed out
by tradition as the spot where the lovely Mary, and her white palfrey,
were in danger of perishing. The distance betwixt Hermitage and
Jedburgh, by the way of Hawick, is nearly twenty-four English miles.
The queen went and returned the same day. Whether she visited a
wounded subject, or a lover in danger, has been warmly disputed in our
latter days.

[Footnote 22: The _Queen's Mire_ is still a pass of danger,
exhibiting, in many places, the bones of the horses which have been
entangled in it. For what reason the queen chose to enter Liddesdale
by the circuitous route of Hawick, does not appear. There are two
other passes from Jedburgh to Hermitage castle; the one by the _Note
of the Gate_, the other over the mountain, called Winburgh. Either of