that James might have the first
knowledge of this secret treasure, concealed hitherto even from Gowrie.
James objected that he had no right to the gold, which was not treasure
trove. Ruthven replied that, if the King would not take it, others
would. James now began to suspect, very naturally, that the gold was
foreign coin. Indeed, what else could it well be? Coin from France,
Italy, or Spain, brought in often by political intriguers, was the least
improbable sort of minted gold to be found in poor old Scotland. In the
troubles of 1592-1596 the supplies of the Catholic rebels were in Spanish
money, whereof some was likely enough to be buried by the owners. James,
then, fancied that Jesuits or others had brought in gold for seditious
purposes, 'as they have ofttimes done before.' Sceptics of the period
asked how one pot of gold could cause a sedition. The question is
puerile. There would be more gold where the potful came from, if
Catholic intrigues were in the air. James then asked the Master 'what
kind of coin it was.' 'They seemed to be foreign and uncouth' (unusual)
'strokes of coin,' said Ruthven, and the man, he added, was a stranger to
him.

James therefore suspected that the man might be a disguised Scottish
priest: the few of them then in Scotland always wore disguises, as they
tell us in their reports to their superiors. {40} The King's inferences
as to _popish_ plotters were thus inevitable, though he may have
emphasised them in his narrative to conciliate the preachers. His horror
of 'practising Papists,' at this date, was unfeigned. He said to the
Master that he could send a servant with a warrant to Gowrie and the
magistrates of Perth to take and examine the prisoner and his hoard.
Contemporaries asked why he did not 'commit the credit of this matter to
another.' James had anticipated the objection. He _did_ propose this
course, but Ruthven replied that, if others once touched the money, the
King 'would get a very bad account made to him of that treasure.' He
implored his Majesty to act as he advised, and not to forget him
afterwards. This suggestion may seem mean in Ruthven, but the age was
not disinterested, nor was Ruthven trying to persuade a high-souled man.
The King was puzzled and bored, 'the morning was fair, the game already
found,' the monarch was a keen sportsman, so he said that he would think
the thing over and answer at the end of the hunt.

Granting James's notorious love o