The whole affair of the supper was, for a short time, kept concealed from Mary; and though Bothwell's intentions and wishes began to be pretty generally talked of throughout the country, she was the very last to hear of them. When the Lord Herries ventured on one occasion to come upon the subject with the Queen, and mentioned the report as one which had gained considerable credit, "her Majesty marvelled," says Melville, "to hear of such rumours without meaning, and said _that there was no such thing in her mind_." Only a day or two after the bond was signed, she left Edinburgh to visit the prince her son, who was then in the keeping of the Earl of Mar at Stirling. Before she went, Bothwell ventured to express his hopes to her, but she gave him an answer little agreeable to his ambition. "The bond being once obtained," Mary afterwards wrote to France, "Bothwell began afar off to discover his intention, and to essay if he might by humble suit purchase our good will."--"But finding an answer nothing correspondent to his desire, and casting from before his eyes all doubts that men use commonly to revolve with themselves in similar enterprises,--the backwardness of our own mind--the persuasions which our friends or his enemies might cast out for his hindrance--the change of their minds whose consent he had already obtained, with many other incidents which might occur to frustrate him of his expectation,--he resolved with himself to follow forth his good fortune, and, all respect laid apart, either to tine all in one hour, or to bring to pass that thing he had taken in hand."[78] This is a clear and strong statement, describing exactly the feelings both of Bothwell and Mary at this period. The Earl did not long dally on the brink of his fate. Ascertaining that Mary was to return from Stirling on the 24th, he left Edinburgh with a force of nearly 1000 men well mounted, under the pretence of proceeding to quell some riots on the Borders. But he had only gone a few miles southward, when he turned suddenly to the west, and riding with all speed to Linlithgow, waited for Mary at a bridge over the Almond about a mile from that town. The Queen soon made her appearance with a small train, which was easily overpowered, and which indeed did not venture to offer any resistance. The Earl of Huntly, Secretary Maitland, and Sir James Melville, were the only persons of rank who were with the Queen; and they were carried captive along with her; but the rest of her attendants were dismissed. Bothwell himself seized the bridle of Mary's horse, and turning off the road to Edinburgh, conducted her with all speed to his Castle at Dunbar.[79]