y, declares that Ruthven (then a married man) persecuted her by
his lust. He aided Lindsay in extorting her abdication at Loch Leven.
Such was his record as regards Mary: James too had little reason to love
him.

The early reign of James in Scotland was a series of Court revolutions,
all of the same sort. James was always either, unwillingly, under nobles
who were allies of Elizabeth, and who used the Kirk as their instrument,
or under vicious favourites who delivered him from these influences.
When Morton fell in 1581, the King was under D'Aubigny (Lennox), a false
Protestant and secret Catholic intriguer, and Arran (Captain James
Stewart), a free lance, and, in religion, an Indifferent. Lennox
entangled James in relations with the Guises and Catholic Powers; Gowrie,
and the Protestant nobles, being threatened by Arran and Lennox, captured
James, in an insulting manner, at Gowrie's castle of Ruthven. He came as
a guest, for hunting; he remained a prisoner. (1582.) The Kirk approved
and triumphed: James waited and dissembled, while Gowrie was at the head
of the Government. In June 1583, James, by a sudden flight to St.
Andrews Castle, where his friends surrounded him, shook himself free of
Gowrie, who, however, secured a pardon for his share in James's capture,
in the 'Raid of Ruthven' of 1582. Lennox being dead, the masterful and
unscrupulous Arran now again ruled the King, and a new Lennox came from
France, the Duke of Lennox who was present at the tragedy of August 5,
1600.

The Lords who had lost power by James's escape to St. Andrews now
conspired anew. Angus, Mar, and others were to march on Stirling, Gowrie
was waiting at Dundee. (April 1584) Arran knew of the plot, and sent
Colonel Stewart to arrest Gowrie. After holding his house against
Stewart's men, the Earl was taken and carried to Edinburgh. The other
Lords, his allies, failed and fled. Gowrie was brought to trial. He had
a pardon for the Raid of Ruthven, he had done nothing ostensible in the
recent rising, which followed his capture at Dundee. Nevertheless he was
tried, condemned, executed, and forfeited. There exists a manuscript of
the date, which, at least, shows what Gowrie's friends thought of the
method by which his conviction was procured. Arran and Sir Robert
Melville, it is said, visited him in prison, and advised him to make his
peace with James. How was that to be done? Gowrie entreated for the
kind offices of Melville and A