This beginning of opposition, weak as it was, none the less disquieted
Bothwell, who, sure of Mary's love, resolved to make short work of
things. Accordingly, as the queen was returning from Stirling to
Edinburgh some days after the scenes we have just related, Bothwell
suddenly appeared at the Bridge of Grammont with a thousand horsemen,
and, having disarmed the Earl of Huntly, Livingston, and Melville, who
had returned to his mistress, he seized the queen's horse by the bridle,
and with apparent violence he forced Mary to turn back and follow him to
Dunbar; which the queen did without any resistance--a strange thing for
one of Mary's character.

The day following, the Earls of Huntly, Livingston, Melville, and the
people in their train were set at liberty; then, ten days afterwards,
Bothwell and the queen, perfectly reconciled, returned to Edinburgh
together.

Two days after this return, Bothwell gave a great dinner to the nobles
his partisans in a tavern. When the meal was ended, on the very same
table, amid half-drained glasses and empty bottles, Lindsay, Ruthven,
Morton, Maitland, and a dozen or fifteen other noblemen signed a bond
which not only set forth that upon their souls and consciences Bothwell
was innocent, but which further denoted him as the most suitable husband
for the queen. This bond concluded with this sufficiently strange
declaration:

"After all, the queen cannot do otherwise, since the earl has carried her
off and has lain with her."

Yet two circumstances were still opposed to this marriage: the first,