and to
lay these before the Council, that steps might be taken at once to
defeat them. Kerr's apprehension was a proof of the efficiency of this
organisation. A search having been made, there were found in his
possession, along with many treasonable letters, several sheets of paper
containing no writing. They were addressed to the King of Spain,
however, and bore the signatures and seals of the three chief Popish
lords--Huntly, Angus, and Errol. Attached to these documents was a
commission to a Jesuit named Crichton, to fill up the blanks, and in
such a way--so it transpired afterwards--as to invite Philip to invade
the country, and to pledge to him the support of these nobles. Kerr and
an accomplice, Graham of Fintry, were brought before the Council and
confessed the plot; and a few days after the arrest of Kerr, before the
report of it had spread through the country, the Earl of Angus, having
occasion to come to Edinburgh, was seized by the magistrates and
confined in the Castle.

The King was absent from the city at the time attending the marriage
festivities of the Earl of Mar, and an urgent request was sent to him by
the ministers of Edinburgh and his own Council to return and take steps
to bring the conspirators to justice. James, instead of thanking the
ministers and councillors for their diligence in the matter, blamed them
for their super-serviceableness, and so gave the impression that he was
in sympathy with the plot. Kerr himself, in a letter to the King, went
the length of saying that he and his friends had no doubt that they
would have his countenance in their enterprise; and Calderwood
says:--'It appeareth the chief conspirators have had his [the King's]
expresse or tacite consent, or at least have perceaved him inclyned that
way, whereupon they have presumed.' Events confirmed the suspicion, if
it wanted confirmation, of James's secret leanings to the party that had
been guilty of treason. Only one of them--Graham, the most insignificant
of their number--paid the penalty of his crime; Kerr and the Earl of
Angus escaped from prison with the connivance of the authorities;
Huntly, who had been summoned to stand trial before the Privy Council,
retired to his own territory and defied the Government, and it was only
when he could no longer resist the popular will that the King took
action against him. At the head of a considerable force, James set out
to seize him; but when the army reached Aberdeen it was fou