too, was seen
on the stairs by Craigengelt.

If Gowrie's behaviour is correctly described, it might be attributed to
anxiety about a Royal meal so hastily prepared. But if Gowrie had plenty
of warning, from Henderson (as I do not doubt), that theory is not
sufficient. If engaged in a conspiracy, Gowrie would have reason for
anxiety. The circumstances, owing to the number of the royal retinue,
were unfavourable, yet, as the story of the pot of gold had been told by
Ruthven, the plot could not be abandoned. James even 'chaffed' Gowrie
about being so pensive and _distrait_, and about his neglect of some
little points of Scottish etiquette. Finally he sent Gowrie into the
hall, with the grace-cup for the gentlemen, and then called the Master.
He sent Gowrie, apparently, that he might slip off with the Master, as
that gentleman wished. 'His Majesty desired Mr. Alexander to bring Sir
Thomas Erskine with him, who' (Ruthven) 'desiring the King to go forward
with him, and promising that he should make any one or two follow him
that he pleased to call for, desiring his Majesty to command _publicly_
that none should follow him.' This seems to mean, James and the Master
were to cross the hall and go upstairs; James, or the Master for him,
bidding no one follow (the Master, according to Balgonie, did say that
the King would be alone), while, presently, the Master should return and
privately beckon on one or two to join the King. The Master's excuse for
all this was the keeping from Gowrie and others, for the moment, of the
secret of the prisoner and the pot of gold.

Now, if we turn back to Sir Thomas Erskine's evidence, we find that, when
he joined James in the chamber, after the slaying of the Master, he said
'I thought your Majesty would have concredited more to me, than to have
commanded me to await your Majesty at the door, if you thought it not
meet to have taken me with you.' The King replied, 'Alas, the traitor
deceived me in that, as in all else, for I commanded him expressly to
bring you to me, and he returned back, as I thought, to fetch you, but he
did nothing but _steik_ [shut] the door.'

What can these words mean? They appear to me to imply that James sent
the Master back, according to their arrangement, to bring Erskine, that
the Master gave Erskine some invented message about waiting at some door,
that he then shut a door between the King and his friends, but told the
King that Erskine was to follow the