Kirkaldy of Grange,
who commanded the Regent's cavalry, seized and kept the place of vantage
from the beginning, and at the first sign of wavering on the other side
shattered at a single charge the forces of the Queen with a loss of one
man to three hundred. Mary fled sixty miles from the field of her last
battle before she halted at Sanquhar, and for three days of flight,
according to her own account, had to sleep on the hard ground, live on
oatmeal and sour milk, and fare at night like the owls, in hunger, cold,
and fear.
On the third day from the rout of Langside she crossed the Solway, and
landed at Workington in Cumberland, May 16, 1568. On the 20th Lord
Scrope and Sir Francis Knollys were sent from court to carry messages
and letters of comfort from Elizabeth to Mary at Carlisle. On June 11th
Knollys wrote to Cecil at once the best description and the noblest
panegyric extant of the Queen of Scots--enlarging, with a brave man's
sympathy, on her indifference to form and ceremony, her daring grace and
openness of manner, her frank display of a great desire to be avenged of
her enemies, her readiness to expose herself to all perils in hope of
victory, her delight to hear of hardihood and courage, commending by
name all her enemies of approved valor, sparing no cowardice in her
friends, but above all things athirst for victory by any means at any
price, so that for its sake pain and peril seemed pleasant to her, and
wealth and all things, if compared with it, contemptible and vile.
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