=18. Escape of Mary.=--But there was a large party of the nobles, with the Hamiltons at their head, who were opposed to the new government and kept themselves apart at _Hamilton_. Before a year of her captivity had passed, Mary escaped and joined them there, and again took up the sceptre which she had so lately laid down. Eighteen lords of parliament and many lesser barons signed a bond to uphold their Queen, and she sent a message from her court at Hamilton to Murray, who was at _Glasgow_ almost unguarded, commanding him to resign the regency. Instead of obeying, Murray seized the herald who had come to proclaim the Queen; sent to _Stirling_ for cannon, and called out the feudal force in the name of King James. =19. Battle of Langside.=--The Castle of _Dunbarton Rock_, the strongest fortress in the kingdom, was held for the Queen, and to it she determined to go for greater safety. To get there she had to pass close by _Glasgow_, where Murray was. At _Langside_, on the southern shore of the _Clyde_, her way was barred by the King's army, which, though not so large as her own, had much better leaders. The fight that followed settled the fate of Scotland, May 13, 1568. Few lives were lost, for at the first charge the spears of the front rank got locked in the jacks of their opponents. They could thus neither go backward nor forward, and kept those behind from coming within arm's length of one another. _Grange_ turned the day by charging the Queen's force with his cavalry. They fled in confusion, and Mary rode with all speed to the Border; crossed the _Solway_, and going straight to _Carlisle_, threw herself on the protection of _Elizabeth_. But Elizabeth had not forgotten how Mary had assumed her arms and had given herself out as the real Queen of England; and as she knew that Mary, if left at liberty, would plot with the English Roman Catholics, she put her in ward in _Bolton Castle_, and refused to see her till she cleared herself of the suspicion under which she lay of having been concerned in her husband's death. But at the same time Elizabeth would not acknowledge the government of Scotland, nor approve the conduct of the lords who had set up King James, for she did not like the doctrine that princes, however badly they had acted, might be judged and punished by their subjects.