exander, sixth Lord Home, whose father, the
fifth lord, had married Agnes, sister of Patrick, sixth Lord Gray, and
widow of Sir Robert Logan of Restalrig. By Sir Robert, Lady Restalrig
had a son, the Logan of this affair; and, when, after Sir Robert's death,
she married the fifth Lord Home, she had to him a son, Alexander, sixth
Lord Home. Our Logan and the sixth Lord Home were, therefore, brothers
uterine. {206a}

Now, if we accept as genuine (in substance) the one letter which Sprot
declared to be really written by Logan (No. IV), Gowrie was anxious that
Home, a person of great importance, Warden on the Border, should be
initiated into the conspiracy. As Gowrie had been absent from Scotland,
between August 1594 (when he, as a lad, was in league with the wild
king-catcher, Francis Stewart of Bothwell), and May 1600, we ask, what
did Gowrie know of Home, and why did he think him an useful recruit? The
answer is that (as we showed in another connection, p. 130) Gowrie was in
Paris in February-April 1600, that Home was also in Paris at the same
time (arriving in Scotland, at his house of Douglas, April 18, 1600), and
that Home did not go to Court, on his return, owing to the King's
displeasure because of his 'trysting with Bothwell' in Brussels. {206b}

Here then we have, in March 1600, Gowrie and Home, in Paris, and
Bothwell, the King-catcher, meeting Home in Brussels. Therefore, when
Letter IV represents Gowrie as anxious to bring Home, who had been
consulting Bothwell, into his plot, nothing can be more natural. Gowrie
himself conceivably met his old rebellious ally, Bothwell; he was certain
to meet Home in Paris, and Home, owning Douglas Castle and Home Castle
near the Border, would have been a most serviceable assistant. It must
also be remembered that Home was, at heart, a Catholic, a recent and
reluctant Protestant convert, 'compelled to come in,' by the Kirk.
Bothwell was a Catholic; Gowrie, he declared, was another; Logan was a
trafficker with Jesuits, and an 'idolater' in the matter of 'keeping
great Yules.' Logan, however, if Letter IV is genuine, in substance,
wrote that he 'utterly dissented' from Gowrie's opinion. He would not
try his brother's, Home's, mind in the matter, or 'consent that he ever
should be counsellor thereto, for, in good faith, he will never help his
friend, nor harm his foe.'

Such being the relations (if we accept Letter IV as in substance genuine)
between Gowrie, Home, and Lo