he law, for treasonably concealing foreknowledge of the conspiracy.

According to the British Museum MS., Gowrie now told the jury that he was
being accused on the strength of his own letter, treacherously extorted
under promise of life, by Montrose, Doune, Maitland, Melville, Colonel
Stewart, and the Captain of Dumbarton, _not_ by Arran. In Gowrie's
letter of confession, to the King, as printed by Spottiswoode, he does
not mention Godscroft, but another intriguer, Erskine. However, in this
letter he certainly confesses his concern with the conspiracy. But, says
the MS., the nobles charged by Gowrie with having betrayed him under
promise of life denied the accusations on oath. Gowrie himself,
according to another copy of the MS., denied knowing Hume of Godscroft;
if he did, he spoke untruly, _teste_ Godscroft.

However matters really stood, the Earl's friends, at all events, believed
that he had been most cruelly and shamefully betrayed to the death, and,
as the King was now eighteen, they would not hold him guiltless.

These were not the only wrongs of the Ruthvens. While the power of Arran
lasted (and it was, on the whole, welcome to James, though he had moments
of revolt), the family of Ruthven was persecuted. The widow of Gowrie
was a daughter (see Appendix A) of Henry Stewart, Lord Methven, who, as a
young man, had married Margaret, sister of Henry VIII, widow of James IV,
and divorced from the Earl of Angus. As this lady, our Gowrie's mother,
knelt to implore the pity of James in the street after her Lord's death,
Arran pushed her aside, and threw her down. He received the Earl's
forfeited estate and castle of Dirleton, near North Berwick.

In October 1585, Arran fell, in his turn; Angus, Mar, and others drove
him into retirement. James acquiesced; his relations with the house of
Mar remained most friendly. The house of Ruthven was now restored to its
lands and dignities, in 1586, the new Earl being James, who died in early
youth. He was succeeded by his brother, the Gowrie of our tragedy, who
was born about 1577. He had many sisters; the eldest, Mary, married the
Earl of Atholl, a Stewart, in January 1580. Lady Gowrie was thus
mother-in-law of the Earl of Atholl, who died at Gowrie House in August
1594. Her grand-daughter, Dorothea (daughter of Atholl and Mary Ruthven,
sister of our Gowrie), in 1604 married that young Tullibardine who was in
Perth at the tragedy of August 5, 1600. Lady Atholl is s