28 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



assured that these were Lennox, Mar, and his other friends, ordered them to 

 be admitted. Rushing forward, and finding the king, unexpectedly, safe, nothing 

 could exceed the warmth of their congratulations; while James, falling on his 

 knees with all his attendants around him, offered up fervent thanks to God for 

 so miraculous a deliverance. But the danger was not yet over ; the inhabitants 

 of Perth, of which Gowrie was provost and in that office highly popular,* 

 on hearing the fate of the two brothers, flew to arms, beset the house, 

 and threatening revenge, applied the most opprobrious epithets to the king. 

 James endeavoured to pacify the exasperated multitude by speaking to them 

 from the window ; he admitted their magistrates to his presence, related the 

 whole circumstances as they had occurred, and these being repeated to the 

 people, their fury subsided, and they dispersed. 



The man in armour, who was afterwards discovered, on a promise of pardon, 

 and proved to be Gowrie's steward, declared that he was totally ignorant of 

 his master's design. After many trials, and several executions, nothing was 

 ever elicited that could throw any light upon this mysterious plot. The 

 clergy, however, boldly maintained that the " court account" was a mere 

 fabrication, formed and executed by the king himself, for destroying two 

 popular characters, who were known to favour the Presbyterian interest, and 

 whose family had long been privately obnoxious to James. Rendered stubborn 

 by this conviction, they refused to return public thanks for the king's escape, 

 and several were banished in consequence. f 



Having mentioned Ruthven, now Huntingtower Castle, as that in which the 

 Scottish sovereign was unlawfully detained, we may add the following anecdote 

 by way of contrast. A daughter of the first Earl Gowrie, being addressed 

 by a young gentleman, much her inferior in rank and fortune, (disadvantages 

 which were entirely overlooked by the lady,) her family, although they dis- 

 couraged the match, permitted his visits at the castle. On one of these 



* Alexander Ruthven was a young man of great hoiics, learned, handsome, young, and active; his 

 brother and he belonged to the class of men which most readily attracted the king's notice ; and generous, 

 brave, and religious to a degree, not common with men so young, they were the darlings of the people. 

 Sir Waller Scott. 



t Even on the continent, says Osborn, not a Scotchman could be found who did not laugh at it, and 

 agree that the relation murdered all possibility of credit. The whole, indeed, is a story which might 

 almost stagger a believer in miracles, and, for its proof, demands an evidence which neither the history 

 of the times, nor the most intimate knowledge of human nature, can produce. We can only say with 

 Bruce, one of the clergymen who demurred at thanking the Almighty for the discomfiture of this pre- 

 tended conspiracy, that, " if we must, on pain of death, reverence his Majesty's report of the trans- 

 action, we will reverence it, but we will not say that we are convinced of the truth of it." See also Lives 

 of Scottish Poels, art. James VI. 



