that commission court
met, the earls of Marr and Gowrie, the master of Oliphant, young
Lochlevin, &c. carried the king to Ruthven castle, and there supplicated
him to revoke his commission to Lennox, which he did: and the king
ordered him to leave the country, which, after some delays, he also did,
retiring to Berwick. Afterwards two persons concerned in the affair at
Ruthven, were charged to leave the realm upon pain of corporal
punishment, because the council had adjudged that affair to be treason
against the king and government. The earl of Gowrie was ordered to leave
the kingdom, notwithstanding he had, at the command of the council,
confessed that the fact at Ruthven was treason.

[41] The persons concerned in the raid of Ruthven, assembled an army at
Stirling and took the castle, from thence they sent a supplication to
the king to redress their grievances. In the mean time, the earl of
Gowrie, lingering about Dundee was apprehended and committed to prison,
which discouraged the party at Stirling very much, so that they fled in
the night, and got to Berwick; the captain of the castle and three
others were hanged; Gowrie was likewise executed on the 2d of May 1584.

[42] Bennet, in his memorial, says, That while he (James) grasped at
arbitrary power, to which he discovered an inclination thro' the whole
of his reign, it has been observed, and not without good reason, that he
made himself mean and contemptible to all the world abroad, though
affecting to swagger over his parliament and people at home, which he
did in a manner that was far from making or showing him great.

[43] Mr James Melvil was confined at last to Berwick, where he ended his
days, Jan, 1614.

[44] The epigram is as follows,

Cur stant clausi Anglis libri duo, regia in arca,
Lumina caeca duo, pollubra sicca duo?
Num sensum, cultumque Dei tenet Anglia clausum,
Lumine caeca suo, sorde sepulta suo?
Romano et ritu, dum regalem instruit aram
Purpuream pingit religiosa lupam.

[45] Spotswood doth not ascribe any thing of the form of presbyterian
church government to Mr. Knox, because they admitted of superintendents
in the church in his time, which he thinks was Episcopacy: but says,
That Mr. Andrew Melvil brought this innovation (as he is pleased to call
it) from Geneva about the year 1575. Hist. p. {illegible} &c.

[46] _The Protestation offered to the estates convened in Parliament at
Perth, in the beginning of July_,