the murder of Darnley. This, of course, does not exclude the hypothesis of Mary's guilt, and while the view of Hume or of Mr. Froude could not now be seriously advanced in its entirety, it is only right to say that a majority of historians are of opinion that she, at least, connived at the murder. The question of her implication as a principal in the plot depends upon the authenticity of the documents known as the "Casket Letters", which purported to be written by the queen to Bothwell, and which the insurgent lords afterwards produced as evidence against her.[77] Moray had left Scotland in the end of April. When he returned in the beginning of August he found that the prisoner of Lochleven, to whom he owed his advancement and his earldom, had been forced to sign a deed of abdication, nominating himself as regent for her infant son. On the 15th August he went to Lochleven and saw his sister, as he had done after the murder of Rizzio, when she was a prisoner in Holyrood. Till an hour past midnight, Elizabeth's pensioner preached to the unfortunate princess on righteousness and judgment, leaving her "that night in hope of nothing but of God's mercy". It was merely a threat; Mary's life was safe, for Elizabeth, roused, for once, to a feeling of generosity, had forbidden Moray to make any attempt on that. Next morning he graciously accepted the regency and left his sister's prison with her kisses on his lips.[78] On the 2nd May, 1568, Mary escaped from Lochleven, and her brother at once prepared a hostile force to meet her. Her army, composed largely of Protestants, marched towards Dunbarton Castle, where they desired to place the queen for safe keeping. The regent intercepted her at Langside, and inflicted a complete defeat upon her forces. Mary was again a fugitive, and her followers strongly urged her to take refuge in France. But Elizabeth had given her a promise of protection, and Mary, impelled by some fateful impulse, resolved to throw herself on the mercy of her kinswoman.[79] On the 16th day of May, her little boat crossed the Solway. When the Queen of Scots, the daughter of the House of Guise, the widow of a monarch of the line of Valois, set foot on English soil as a suppliant for the protection which came to her only by death, the last faint hope must have faded out of the hearts of the few who still longed for an independent Scotland, bound by gratitude and by ancient tradition to the ally who, more than once, had proved its salvation. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 61: Cf. the present writer's "Mary, Queen of Scots" (Scottish History from Contemporary Writers).] [Footnote 62: The spelling "Stuart", which Queen Mary brought with her from France, now superseded the older "Stewart".] [Footnote 63: Foreign Calendar: Elizabeth, December 31st, 1560.] [Footnote 64: _Cabala, Sive Scrinia Sacra_, pp. 345-349.] [Footnote 65: Foreign Calendar, May 7th, 1562.] [Footnote 66: Foreign Calendar, June 8th, 1562.]