OF QUEEN MARY. 37 



" The Earl of Atholl prepared for her Majesty's reception 

 by sending out about two thousand Highlanders to gather 

 the deer from Mar, Badenoch, Murray, and Atholl, to the 

 district he had previously appointed. It occupied the 

 Highlanders for several weeks in driving the deer, to the 

 amount of two thousand, besides roes, does, and other 

 game. 



" The Queen, with her numerous attendants and a great 

 concourse of the nobility, gentry, and people, were 

 assembled at the appointed glen, and the spectacle much 

 delighted her Majesty, particularly as she observed that 

 such a numerous herd of deer seemed to be directed in all 

 their motions by one stately animal among them ; they all 

 walked, stopped, or turned as he did, they all followed 

 him. The Queen was delighted to see all the deer so at- 

 tentive to their leader, and upon her pointing it out to the 

 Earl of Atholl, who knew the nature of the animal well, 

 having been accustomed to it from his youth, he told her 

 that they might all come to be frightened enough by that 

 beautiful beast. f For,' said he, ' should that stag in the 

 front, which your Majesty justly admires so much, be 

 seized with any fit of fury or of fear, and rush down from 

 the side of the hill, where you see him stand, to this plain, 

 then would it be necessary for every one of us to provide 

 for the safety of your Majesty, and for our own : all the 

 rest of those deer would infallibly come with him as thick 

 as possibly they could, and make their way over our bodies 

 to the mountain that is behind us.' 



" This information occasioned the Queen some alarm ; 

 and what happened afterwards proved it not to be alto- 

 gether without cause; for her Majesty having ordered a 



D 3 



