The monastery; The abbot.

512 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
"Pull!" again exclaimed Seyton; "stretch to your oars, or I will spur
you to the task with my dagger they will launch a boat immediately."
"That is cared for," said Roland; "I locked gate and wicket on them
when I went back, and no boat will stir from the island this night, if doors
of good oak and bolts of iron can keep men within stone-walls.-And now
I resign my office of porter of Lochleven, and give the keys to the Kelpie's
keeping."
As the heavy keys plunged in the lake, the Abbot, who till then had
been repeating his prayers, exclaimed, " Now, bless thee, my son! for thy.
ready prudence puts shame on us all."*
" I knew," said Mary, drawing her breath more freely, as they were now
out of reach of the musketry- "I knew my squire's truth, promptitude,
and sagacity. - must have him my dear friends with my no less true
knights, Douglas and Seyton - but where, then, is Douglas?"
"Here, madam," answered the deep and melancholy voice of the boatman who sat next her, and who acted as steersman.
" Alas! was it you who stretched your body before me," said the Queen,
"when the balls were raining around us?"
" Believe you," said he, in a low tone, "that Douglas would have
resigned to any one the chance of protecting his Queen's life with his
own?"
The dialogue was here interrupted by a shot or two from one of those
small pieces of artillery called falconets, then used in defending castles.
The shot was too vague to have any effect, but the broader flash, the deeper
sound, the louder return which was made by the midnight echoes of Bennarty, terrified and imposed silence on the liberated prisoners. The boat
was alongside of a rude quay or landing-place, running out from a garden
It is well known that the escape of Queen Mary from Lonhleven was effected by George Douglas, the
youngest brother of Sir William Douglas, the lord of tire castle; but the miinute circlumstances of the event
have been a good deal confused, owing to two iagents having been concerned in it who bohre the same name.
It has been always supposed that George Douglas was induced to alet MGary's escape by the armbitions hope
that, t)y such service, he mighlt merit her hand. But his purpose was discovered by his brother Sir William,
and he was expelled from the castle. He continued, not.witllstanding. to Iover in the neighbourhood, and
maintain a correspondence with the royal prisoner andt o hers in tile fortress
If we believe the English ambassador Drury, the Qule;n was grateful to George Douglas, and even proposed
a marriage with him; a scheme which could hardly be serious, since she was still the wife of Bothwell, but
which, if suggested at all, might he with a purpose of gratifving the Regent Alurray's ambition, and propitiating his favour; since he was, it must be remembered, the brother uterine of George Douglas, for whom such
high honour was said to be desitned.
The proposal, if seriously made, was treated as inadmissible, and MAary again resumed her purpose ofescape.
Her failure in her first attempt has somie nicturiesque parliculirs, which mighrt have been advantageously
introduced in fictitious narrative. Drury seinds C(ecil tile following account of the matter:"But after, upon the 25th of the last, (Aptil lS57,) she ilerprised al escape, and was the rather near effect,
throuogl. her accustoiedl long iyyin in bed all the imorningr. Thlie tmatiner of it wsas this: there corret h in to her tile
laundress earlv as otlier limes before she was wantel, aiid the iQueen accorlding to stch a secret practice pitteth oil her the hood of the laundress, and so withl the f ardel of clothes aind the muffler upon haerface, p:asseth
out and enterelh the boat to pass the Loch; which. aftoer some space, one of them that roweed said merrily,' Let us see what manner of dame this is,' and tlerewith offered to ptll down her muffier, which to defend,
she put up her hands, which they spied to be very fuir and white; wherewith they entered into suspiciton
whtom she was, beginning to wonder at her enterprise. Whereat she was little dlisiaryed, but charged them,
upon danger of their lives, to row ther over to the shore. which they nothing regarded, but eftsoons rowed her
back again, promising her it should be secreted, and especially from the lord of the house, under whose guard
she lyeth. It seeineth she knew her refuge, ard where to have found it if she had once landed; for there
(lid, and yet do linger, at a little village called Kinross, hard at the Loch side, the same George D1)oglas, one
Sempel and one Betonl, the which two ywere sometimre her trusty servanits. and, as yet appeareth. they nind
her no less affection." -Bishop Keith's lislory oJf the Affairos of Chiurch and Sl Slat i Scolad, p. 490.
Notwithstanding this disappointmnent, little spoke of by historians, Mary renewed her atterlmpts to escape.
There was in the Castle of Loclhleven a lad. named William Douglas, some relation probably of tlhe baron,
and about eighteen years old. This youth proved as accessible to Queen Mary's pravers and promises, as was
the brother of his patron, George Douglas, from whom this William must be carefully kept distinct. It was
young Willlia who played the part commronly assigned to his superior, George, stealing the keys of the castle
from the table on which they lay, while his lord was at supper. He let the Queen and a waiting woman out
of the apartment where they were secured, and out of the tower itself, embarlked with them in a small skiff,
and rowed them to the shore. To prevent instant pursuit, he, for precaution's sale, locked tire iron grited
door of the tower, and threw the keys into the lake. They found George Douglas anrd the Queen's servant,
Beton, waiting for them, and Lord Seyton and James Taminllton of Orbeiston irn attendance, at the head of a
party of faithful followers, with whom they fled to Niddrie Castle, and from thence to Hamilton.
In narrating this romantic story, bothl history and tradition confuse the two Douglasses together, and confer
on George the successful execution of the escape front the castle, the merit of which belongs, in reality, to
the boy called William, or, more frequently, the Little Douglas, either from his youth or his slight stature.
Thle reader will observe, that in the romance, the part of the Little Douglas has been assigned to Roland
(;Grame. In another case, it would be tedious to point out in a work of artusement such minute points of historical fact; but the general interest taken in the fate of Queen Mary, renders every thing of consequence
which coniects itself with her misfortunes