New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-11-09

for the kidnapping of their King. This is what
We must believe il we are to believe in the
guilt of James:
He would secretly can young Ruthven to
Falkland by in the morning of August .; he
would make it appear that RUthven had invited
him to Perth; he would lure the youth to a tur-
ret, managing to be locked in with him and an
armed man; he would post Ramsay below the
tUrTet window, and warn him 70 run up the
dark staircase at the Kings cry of treason BY
the locked door he would exclude Lennox and
Mar, while his miniOns would first delay Cow
rie's approach by the narrow stairs, and then
permit him to enter with only one companion,
CranstOun. He would cause report Of his own
departure to be circulated exactly at the right
moment TO bring GOwrie under the tUrret win
dow and within reach of his cries. This plot re-
quires the minutest punctuality, everything
must occur at the right moment, and all would
have been defeated had GOwrie told the truth
about the Kings departure, or even asked,
Where is the Kings horse? Or GOWr1e might
have stood in the streets Of Perth and sum
moned his burgesses in arms. The King and the
courtierS, with their dead man, would have been
beIeagyered without provisions. in Gowrie's
house WAS James the man. on the strength Of
the grudges which we have carefully enumer-
ated to risk himself. unarmed, in this situation!
AS to how he managed to have the door locked
so as TO exclude the majority of his suite. who
can conjecture? How. again. did he induce
Gowrie to aver. and that after making INQUIRY
that ne had ridden hOmeward?
i cannot believe that any sane man OF rnon-
arch from the motives specified. would or eouiu
have laid. and that successfully, the plot at
tributed to the King
On the other hand the case made out against
Ruthven and Gowrie by Mr.. Lang fits them al
most if not quite like a glove. If James had
grudges against the two they had grudges
against him, and while he. as 1.-THE top dog"
could have done damage without going around
Robin Hoods barn TO do it, his two restless sub
jects for all their power, could not hope to
master him except by secret craft Further
more, the aIusion, in the passage just quoted, to
Gowrie and "the Kings departure touches a
point which would alone suffice to direct the
most serious suspicious toward the Earl
Shortly after James had gone upstairs with the
Master of Ruthven equerry of GOwrie's came
TO the latter in the garden. where he and several
others had gone to eat cherries, and cried. The
King has mounted and is riding through the
Inchr' Gowrie shouted. Horses! horses only
TO be reminded by his equerry that his own
horse was two miles off at Scone fact IN ITSELF
very curious But the Earl continued to shout
Horses and then went to the gate giving on
the street. where Lennox asked the porter II the
King had gone. The porter said ne had not
gone Gowrie exclaimed to the pOrter<that the
King had left by the back gate. But that fac
totum replied. THAT cannot be. my Lord, for
have the key of the back gate!' GOwrie then
reiterated his conviction that the King had gone.
but went upstairs as though to make assurance
doubIy sure. Coming down. he affirmed TO Len
nox that "the King was forth at the back gate
and away" All this time James was being en-
trapped,
Now il must not be forgotten that he was a
prodigious liar. We must remember, too, that
perjury was cheap in those days But he could
not have purchased as witnesses all the noble
men in his train and in the minute analysis or
the available documents. published and in man
uscript, which Mr.. Lang gives us-too minute
altogether for its points 10 be reproduced mere
il must be plain 10 the fair minded reader that
the balance is in favor of the King. one point
made against him by his contempOraries-On
which, in fact. a certain cleric, Robert Bruce
dared to state in his presence-was that ne
should have had the Master of RuthVen taken
alive and tried by legal process But the hing
said Il had neither God nor the devil. man, be-
fore my eyes, but my own defence and there IS
every sign that he spoke the truth on that Occil-
sion at least; that he confronted. with next
to no preparation. by what seemed to him a
Ironstrous conspiracy. and. in hot blood, called
on young Ramsay to strike. The fabUlists, seek
ina, To convict him by finding motive for the
deadly trick they maintain he played upon the
Ruthvens. pirate of love affair between his
Queen. Anne of Denmark, and either GOWrie or
the Master; but there is absolutely no evidence
for this. What of GOwrie's own motive? 1t is
impossible to say. 1t may have been revenge
He may have had vague plans for some dis