Part 21 (1/2)

{48b} Mr. S. R. Gardiner alone remarks on this point, in a note to the first edition of his great History. See note to p. 54, _infra_.

{52a} Apparently not Sir Thomas Hamilton, the King's Advocate.

{52b} State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 51.

{53} Pitcairn, vol. ii. p. 249.

{58} Mr. Scott suggested that a piece of string was found by Balgonie.

The words of Balgonie are 'ane gartane'-a garter. He never mentions string.

{59} According to a story given by Calderwood, Ruthven's sword was later found rusted in its sheath, but no authority is given for the tale.

{60} Pitcairn, ii. 197.

{61a} _The Tragedy of Gowrie House_, by Louis Barbe, 1887, p. 91.

{61b} Mr. Barbe, as we saw, thinks that Robertson perjured himself, when he swore to having seen Henderson steal out of the dark staircase and step over Ruthven's body. On the other hand, Mr. Bisset thought that Robertson spoke truth on this occasion, but concealed the truth in his examination later, because his evidence implied that Henderson left the dark staircase, not when Ramsay attacked Ruthven, but later, when Ruthven had already been slain. Mr. Bisset's theory was that Henderson had never been in the turret during the crisis, but had entered the dark staircase from a door of the dining-hall on the first floor. Such a door existed, according to Lord Hailes, but when he wrote (1757) no traces of this arrangement were extant. If such a door there was, Henderson may have slunk into the hall, out of the dark staircase, and slipped forth again, at the moment when Robertson, in his first deposition, swore to having seen him. But Murray of Arbany cannot well have been there at that moment, as he was with the party of Lennox and Mar, battering at the door of the gallery chamber.-Bisset, _Essays in Historical Truth_, pp.

228237. Hailes, _Annals_. Third Edition, vol. iii. p. 369. Note (1819).

{63a} _Privy Council Register_, vi. 149, 150.

{63b} Pitcairn, ii. 250.

{64} Mr. Panton, who, in 1812, published at Perth, and with Longmans, a defence of the Ruthvens, is very strong on the improbability that Henderson was at Falkland. Why were not the people to whose house in Falkland he went, called as witnesses? Indeed we do not know. But as Mr. Panton looked on the King's witnesses as a gang of murderous perjurers, it is odd that he did not ask himself why they, and the King, did not perjure themselves on this point. (_A Dissertation on the Gowry Conspiracy_, pp. 127131.)

{67a} Pitcairn, ii. 222, 223.

{67b} Hudson to Cecil, Oct. 19,1600, Edinburgh. State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 78.

{69a} _James Hudson to Sir Robert Cecil_.

'. . . I have had conference of this last acsyon, first wth the King, at lenght, & then wth Henderson, but my speache was first wth Henderson befoar the King came over the watter, betwixt whoame I fynde no defference but yt boath alegethe takinge the dager frome Alexander Ruthven, wch stryf on the one part maie seame to agment honor, & on the other to move mersy by moar merit: it is plaen yt the King only by G.o.d's help deffended his owin lyff wel & that a longe tyme, or els he had lost it: it is not trew that Mr. Alex spok wth his brother when he went owt, nor that Henderson vnlokt the door, but hast & neglect of Mr. Alex, left it opin, wherat Sr Jhon Ramsay entrid, & after hime Sr Tho. Ereskyn Sr Hew Haris & Wilsone. Yt it is not generally trustid is of mallice & preoccupa.s.syon of mens mynds by the minesters defidence at the first, for this people ar apt to beleve the worst & loath to depart frome yt fayth.

'Edinborow this 19 of October 1600.'

{69b} Pitcairn, ii. 218.

{73} _Privy Council Register_, vi. 671.

{74a} State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 107.

{74b} Cranstoun mentioned his long absence in France to prove that he was not another Mr. Thomas Cranstoun, a kinsman of his, who at this time was an outlawed rebel, an adherent of Bothwell (p. 155, _infra_).

{75} State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 107.

'_George Nicolson to Sir Robert Cecil_.

'A man of Cannagate speaking that one Mr. Ro: Oliphant, lyeng at his house, should haue complayned and said that ”there was no justice in Scotland, for favlters skaped fre and innocentis were punished. Mr.