It is certain that the necessary removal of George Douglas from
Lochleven enabled him to devise a method of escape for the prisoner on
March 25, 1568, which was frustrated by detection of her white hands
under the disguise of a laundress. But a younger member of the
household, Willie Douglas, aged eighteen, whose devotion was afterward
remembered and his safety cared for by Mary at a time of utmost risk and
perplexity to herself, succeeded on May 2d in assisting her to escape by
a postern gate to the lake-side, and thence in a boat to the mainland,
where George Douglas, Lord Seton, and others were awaiting her. Thence
they rode to Seton's castle of Niddry, and next day to Hamilton palace,
round which an army of six thousand men was soon assembled, and whither
the new French ambassador to Scotland hastened to pay his duty. The
Queen's abdication was revoked, messengers were despatched to the
English and French courts, and word was sent to Murray at Glasgow that
he must resign the regency, and should be pardoned in common with all
offenders against the Queen. But on the day when Mary arrived at
Hamilton, Murray had summoned to Glasgow the feudatories of the crown,
to take arms against the insurgent enemies of the infant King.
On the 13th of May the battle or skirmish of Langside determined the
result of the campaign in three-quarters of an hour.
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