aid to have
opposed the marriage. Another sister of Gowrie, Sophia, married (before
1600, she was dead by that time) the Duke of Lennox who was at the
slaughter of the Ruthvens. Another sister, Beatrix, was Maid of Honour
to James's Queen, and later married Hume of Cowdenknowes; hence come the
Earls of Home. Gowrie had two younger brothers, Patrick and William, who
fled to England from his castle of Dirleton, the day after the tragedy,
and were forfeited and persecuted by James; Patrick was long imprisoned
in the Tower.

The new Earl, John, the victim of 1600, does not come into public notice
till 1592, when he was elected Provost of Perth. He went to Edinburgh
University; his governor was the respected Mr. Rollock. Here a curious
fact occurs. On August 12, 1593, young Gowrie read his thesis for his
Master's degree. Three weeks earlier, on July 24, the wild Francis
Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, had captured, in Holyrood, his King, who was
half dressed and untrussed. James at the time was suspected of favouring
the Catholic Earls of the North, Huntly, Errol, and a new unpresbyterian
Angus. The King was on ill terms with the Kirk; England had secretly
abetted Bothwell; the clan of Stewart, including Lennox, lent aid and
countenance, _but Bothwell's __success was due to Gowrie's mother_, the
widow of the decapitated Earl, and to his sister, Lady Atholl. Bothwell
entered Lady Gowrie's house, adjoining the palace, spent the night there,
stole into Holyrood by a passage-way left open by Lady Atholl, and
appeared before the King, sword in hand, when his Majesty was half
dressed. Meanwhile our Gowrie, reading for his thesis, may not have been
uninterested in the plot of his mother and sister. This was, in a way,
the second successful Ruthven plot to seize the King; the first was the
Raid of Ruthven. The new success was not enduring. James shook off
Bothwell in September 1593, and, in October, Gowrie's brother-in-law
Atholl, with our Gowrie himself, entered into alliance with Bothwell
against King James, and offered their services to Queen Elizabeth.

James moved out against Atholl, Gowrie, and the Master of Montrose, who
were at Castle Doune, intending to join hands with Bothwell, and seize
the King. But Bothwell found the plan impracticable: Atholl fled; Gowrie
and the Master of Montrose were pursued and taken. No harm was done to
them: their excuses were accepted, but young Gowrie and Atholl continued
to conspir