conspiracy was detected; and Wotton fled
hastily from Scotland, without taking leave of the king.[*]

James's situation obliged him to dissemble his resentment of this
traitorous attempt, and his natural temper inclined him soon to
forgive and forget it. The queen, found no difficulty in renewing the
negotiations for a strict alliance between Scotland and England; and
the more effectually to gain the prince's friendship, she granted him a
pension, equivalent to his claim on the inheritance of his grand mother,
the countess of Lenox, lately deceased.[**] A league was formed between
Elizabeth and James for the mutual defence of their dominions and of
their religion, now menaced by the open combination of all the Catholic
powers of Europe. It was stipulated, that if Elizabeth were invaded,
James should aid her with a body of two thousand horse and five thousand
foot; that Elizabeth, in a like case, should send to his assistance
three thousand horse and six thousand foot; that the charge of these
armies should be defrayed by the prince who demanded assistance; that
if the invasion should be made upon England, within sixty miles of the
frontiers of Scotland, this latter kingdom should march its whole force
to the assistance of the former; and that the present league should
supersede all former alliances of either state with any foreign kingdom,
so far as religion was concerned.[***]

* Melvil.

** Spotswood, p. 351.

*** Spotswood, p. 349. Camden, p. 513. Rymer, tom. xv. p.
803.

By this league, James secured himself against all attempts from abroad,
opened a way for acquiring the confidence and affections of the English,
and might entertain some prospect of domestic tranquillity, which, while
he lived on bad terms with Elizabeth, he could never expect long to
enjoy. Besides the turbulent disposition and inveterate feuds of the
nobility,--ancient maladies of the Scottish government,--the spirit of
fanaticism had introduced a new disorder; so much the more dangerous,
as religion, when corrupted by false opinion, is not restrained by
any rules of morality, and is even scarcely to be accounted for in
its operations by any principles of ordinary conduct and policy. The
insolence of the preachers, who triumphed in their dominion over the
populace, had at this time reached an extreme height; and they carried
their arrogance so far, not only against the king, but against the whole
civil power, that they e