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 these, but especially the latter, is several miles shorter than that by Hawick, and the Queen’s Mire.  But, by the circuitous way of Hawick, the queen could traverse the districts of more friendly clans, than by going directly into the disorderly province of Liddesdale.]

To the death of Henry Darnley, it is said, some of the border lords were privy.  But the subsequent marriage, betwixt the queen and Bothwell, alienated from her the affections of the chieftains of the marches, most of whom aided the association of the insurgent barons.  A few gentlemen of the Merse, however, joined the army which Mary brought to Carberry-hill.  But no one was willing to fight for the detested Bothwell, nor did Bothwell himself shew any inclination to put his person in jeopardy.  The result to Mary was a rigorous captivity in Lochleven castle; and the name of Bothwell scarcely again pollutes the page of Scottish history.

The distress of a beautiful and afflicted princess softened the hearts of her subjects; and, when she escaped from her severe captivity, the most powerful barons in Scotland crowded around her standard.  Among these were many of the west border men, under the lords Maxwell and Herries[23].  But the defeat at Langside was a death-blow to her interest in Scotland.

[Footnote 23:  The followers of these barons are said to have stolen the horses of their friends, while they were engaged in the battle.]

The death of the regent Murray, in 1569, excited the party of Mary to hope and to exertion.  It seems, that the design of Bothwelhaugh, who slew him, was well known upon the borders; for, the very day on which the slaughter happened, Buccleuch and Fairnihirst, with their clans, broke into England, and spread devastation along the frontiers, with unusual ferocity.  It is probable they well knew that the controuling hand of the regent was that day palsied by death.  Buchanan