END OF MARY'S FIRST IMPRISONMENT
The Escape from Lochleven.
Giovanni Correr, Venetian Ambassador in France to the Signory, from Paris, May 26, 1568. Venetian Calendar.
"A LOYAL HOST A ROYAL BANNER BORE"
Guard was continually kept at the castle day and night, except during supper, at which time the gate was locked with a key, every one going to supper, and the key was always placed on the table where the Governor took his meals, and before him. The Governor is the uterine brother of the Earl of Murray, Regent of Scotland, the Queen's illegitimate brother, and her mortal enemy. The Queen, having attempted to descend from a window unsuccessfully, contrived that a page of the Governor's, whom she had persuaded to this effect, when carrying a dish, in the evening of the second of May, to the table of his master with a napkin before him, should place the napkin on the key, and in removing the napkin take up the key with it and carry it away unperceived by any one. Having done so, the page then went directly to the Queen and told her all was ready; and she, having in the meanwhile been attired by the elder of the two maids who waited upon her, took with her by the hand the younger maid, a girl ten years old, and with the page went quietly to the door, and he having opened it, the Queen went out with him and the younger girl and locked the gate outside with the same key, without which it could not be opened from within. They then got into a little boat which was kept for the service of the castle, and displaying a white veil of the Queen's with a red tassel, she made the concerted signal to those who awaited her that she was approaching.... The horsemen ... came immediately to the lake and received the Queen with infinite joy, and having placed her on horseback, with the page and the girl, they conveyed her to the sea coast, at a distance of five miles from thence, because to proceed by land to the place which had been designated appeared manifestly too dangerous. All having embarked, the Queen was conducted to Niddry, a place belonging to Lord Seton, and from thence to Hamilton, a castle of the Duke of Châtelherault, where his brother, the Archbishop of St. Andrews, with other principal personages of those parts, acknowledged her as Queen....
All Scotland is in motion, some declaring for the Queen, and some against her and for the Earl of Murray.... With regard to her flight, it is judged here, by those who know the site, and how strictly she was guarded, that her escape was most miraculous, most especially having been contrived by two lads under ten years of age, who could not be presupposed to have the requisite judgment and secrecy.
To the greater satisfaction with the result may be added that the inmates of Lochleven Castle perceived the flight; but being shut up within it, and thus made prisoners, they had to take patience, and to witness the Queen's escape, while they remained at the windows of the castle.
THE DISASTER AT LANGSIDE
But now, if the current report be true, the Queen of Scotland, following the course of her fickle fortune, gives news of her troops having been routed near Glasgow, all her chief adherents being killed or made prisoners.
Ibid. June 6.