like Henderson, among
the persons who fled, and for whom search was made, as far as the
documents declare, though Calderwood says that he was described as a
'black grim man' in 'the first proclamation.' If so, it looks ill for
James, as Henderson was a brown fair man. In any case, Oliphant at once
cleared himself.

But we hear of him again, though historians have overlooked the fact.
Among the Acts of Caution of 1600--that is, the records of men who become
sureties for the good behaviour of others--is an entry in the Privy
Council Register for December 5, 1600. {73} 'Mr. Alexander Wilky in the
Canongate for John Wilky, tailor there, 200_l._, not to harm John Lyn,
also tailor there; further, to answer when required touching his (John
Wilky's) pursuit of Lyn for revealing certain speeches spoken to him by
Mr. Robert Oliphant anent his foreknowledge of the treasonable conspiracy
of the late John, sometime Earl of Gowrie.'

Thus Robert Oliphant, M.A., had spoken to tailor Lyn, or so Lyn had
declared, about his own foreknowledge of the plot; Lyn had blabbed;
tailor Wilky had 'pursued' or attacked Lyn; and Alexander Wilky, who was
bailie of the Canongate, enters into recognisances to the amount of
200_l._ that John Wilky shall not further molest Lyn.

Now what had Oliphant said?

On the very day, December 5, when Alexander Wilky became surety for the
good behaviour of John Wilky, Nicholson, the English resident at
Holyrood, described the facts to Robert Cecil. {74a} Nicholson says
that, at a house in the Canongate, Mr. Robert Oliphant was talking of the
Gowrie case. He was a man who had travelled, and he inveighed against
the unfairness of Scottish procedure in the case of Cranstoun.

We have seen that Mr. Thomas Cranstoun, Gowrie's equerry, first brought
to Lennox and others, in the garden, the report that the King had ridden
away. We have seen that he was deeply wounded by Ramsay just before or
after Gowrie fell. Unable to escape, he was taken, examined, tortured,
tried on August 22, and, on August 23, hanged at Perth. He had invaded
and wounded Herries, and Thomas Erskine, and had encouraged the mob to
beleaguer the back gate of Gowrie House, against the King's escape. He
had been in France, he said, since 1589, had come home with Gowrie, but,
he swore, had not spoken six words with the Ruthvens during the last
fortnight. {74b} This is odd, as he was their Master Stabler, and as
they, by their friends' acco