r John Cranstoun of Cranstoun.
On one occasion he informs Archibald Douglas, the detested and infamous
murderer and deeply dyed traitor, that 'John of Cranstoun is the one man
now that bears you best good will.' (January 1587?)

[Picture: Fastcastle (circ. 1820)]

In January 1600, the year of the Gowrie plot, we find Sir John Cranstoun
in trouble for harbouring an outlawed Mr. Thomas Cranstoun, who was, with
Douglas, the Laird of Spot, one of Bothwell's allies in all his most
desperate raids on the person of King James. In 1592, Mr. Thomas
Cranstoun was forfeited, he was informed against for 'new conspiracies
against his Majesty's life and estate,' and, in January 1600, Sir John
Cranstoun was sheltering this dangerous and desperate Bothwellian outlaw,
as was his son-in law, Mr. William Cranstoun. {155a}

Now the Mr. Thomas Cranstoun who was hanged for his part in the Gowrie
affair, was brother of Sir John Cranstoun of Cranstoun, the ally of that
other Mr. Thomas Cranstoun who was so deep in Bothwell's wild raids on
the King's person. In the spring of 1600 (as we have said, but must here
repeat) there were reports that Bothwell had secretly returned to
Scotland, and, on April 20, 1600, just before the date of Gowrie's
arrival in Edinburgh from London, Nicholson reports suspected plots of
Archibald Douglas, of John Colville, a ruined Bothwellian, and a spy, and
of the Laird of Spot. {155b} This Colville had recently hinted to Essex
that he could do a serviceable enterprise. 'As for the service I mean to
do, if matters go to the worst, it shall be such, God willing--if I lose
not my life in doing thereof--as no other can do with a million of gold,
and yet I shall not exceed the bonds of humanity,' that is, he will not
_murder_ the King. 'But for conscience sake and worldly honesty, I must
first be absolved of my natural allegiance.' (April 27, 1598; again,
October 20, 1598.) {156}

The point for us to mark is that all these conspirators and violent men,
Bothwell (in exile or secretly in Scotland), Colville (in 1600 an exile
in Paris), the Laird of Spot, the Cranstouns, the infamous Archibald
Douglas, with Richard Douglas his nephew, and Logan of Restalrig, were
united, if not by real friendship, at least, as Thucydides says, by
'partnership in desperate enterprises' and by 1600 were active in a
subterranean way. If it is fair to say, _noscitur a sociis_, 'a man is
known by the company he keep