cto_. This emblem was secured at Padua, in 1609, by
Sir Robert Douglas, who had heard of it in Scotland, and it was sent to
King James. {127b} If such ideas were in Gowrie's mind, he showed no
signs of them in an early correspondence with the King. In 1595, James
wrote 'a most loving letter' to Gowrie; the Earl replied in a tone of
gratitude. At the same time Gowrie wrote to a preacher in Perth,
extolling the conduct of an English fanatic, who had thrown down and
trampled on the Host, at Rome. He hoped, he said, when he returned to
Scotland, 'to amend whatever is amiss for lack of my presence.' {128a}
Nevertheless, on December 25, 1598, Nicholson informed Cecil that Gowrie
had been converted to Catholicism. {128b} In the Venice despatches and
Vatican transcripts I find no corroboration. Gowrie appears to have
visited Rome; the Ruthven apologist declares that he was there 'in danger
for his religion.' Galloway, on August 11, 1600, in presence of the King
and the people of Edinburgh, vowed that Gowrie, since his return from
Italy, had laboured to make James 'revolt from Religion, at least in
inward sincerity, to entertain purpose with the Pope, and he himself
promised to furnish intelligence.'

If so, Gowrie was, indeed, 'a deep dissimulate hypocrite.'

Galloway's informant must have been the King. If Gowrie did or said
anything to colour the story, it may have been for the purpose of
discovering, by pretending to approve of them, these intrigues with Rome,
of which James was constantly being accused.

A new complexity is added here, by a list of Scottish Catholic nobles,
ready to join an invading Spanish force, which the Earl of Bothwell
handed in to Philip III. of Spain, at a date not absolutely certain. At
a time conjectured at by Major Hume, as 1600, Bothwell laid before the
Spanish ministry a scheme for an invasion of Scotland. He made another
more elaborate proposal at a date which, to all seeming, was July 1601.
In the appended list of Scottish Catholic nobles appear the names of the
Earl of Gowrie, and of 'Baron Rastellerse,' that is, Logan of Restalrig.
But, in 1601, there was no Earl of Gowrie; the title was extinct, the
lands were forfeited, and Gowrie's natural heir, William Ruthven, his
brother, was a poor student at Cambridge. Could Bothwell refer to him,
who was no Catholic? Can he have handed in (in 1601) an earlier list of
1600, without deleting the name of the dead Gowrie? As to Gowrie's r