A question may still arise in reference to the moving principle of this singular conspiracy. But, further than what is suggested at the beginning of the present chapter, it is impossible, while possessed of the present limited evidence, to penetrate into the mystery. The sum of the whole is, that it was the rash and ill-provided undertaking of two headstrong young men, in alliance with a more aged and vicious associate, having for its motives some vague desires of vengeance for real or fancied injuries, mingled strangely with some ambitious political views, which appear to have been still more indefinite. If there is an unusual mystery in the case, it is to be attributed solely to the sin gularly small number of the conspirators, their having withheld their secret both from writing and from the ears of friends, and the circumstance of their having died without examination. Should. it still appear wonderful that the two brothers should have made such an attempt unassisted, let the cause of the wonder be sought in their ресиliar character, as explained at the beginning of this chapter. It is surely much more likely, that two such adventurers as they, should form a wild and hopeless project for their own aggrandisement, than that the King, a man never characterized as sanguinary, and whose circumstances and prospects in life were the very best possible, should have thought of hazarding life, character, conscience, and all that he either possessed or expected, for the purpose of destroying two men against whom he had no imaginable cause of offence, and whose deaths, it cannot be made to appear, promised him the least advantage. Had there been no mystery in the Gowry Conspiracy, it

would have long ago been regarded as a simple, and unimportant matter: had the brothers not been unfortunate, and the King unhurt, we believe that the guilt of the former would never have been doubted.

James's conduct in regard to those concerned or connected with the conspiracy, was such as might have been expected in that age from a monarch who had often been exposed to such attempts, and wished to prevent their recurrence. He caused three of Gowry's servants to be executed for drawing their swords against his attendants in the gallery-chamber, although it never could be made to appear that they foreknew the conspiracy, or acted from any other motives than the ordinary ideas of the time regarding the duty of a servant to a master. The estates and titles of the Earl he caused to be forfeited, all his near relations to be banished, his very name to be expunged from society; and the bodies of the two brothers, being dismembered, were dispersed for permanent exhibition on public places throughout the kingdom. * * So completely successful was his attempt to depress the family, that no male descendant is now known to exist. But, with the unpleasing details of judicial vengeance, we should also relate, that, out of the rents of the forfeited estates, the King granted the large sum of a thousand merks yearly to the poor, as a mark of his gratitude to the Almighty for his deliverance.

It was not till eight years after, when James was removed to London, that Logan's share in

Their heads remained on the western pinnacle of the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, till some time during the Civil War.

the conspiracy was discovered. Logan had employed a man of the name of Bour as his mes senger in communicating with the two Ruthvens. Bour, being unable to read or write, although in every other respect well qualified for his duty, was obliged to call in the assistance of George Sprot, a notary at the sea-port of Eyemouth, that he might have the letters which Logan addressed to him read. Sprott, who thus became in some measure privy to the conspiracy, kept the secret till after the death of Logan and Bour, when he was so imprudent as to utter hints that he could make some discoveries regarding the mysterious enterprise of the fifth of August. The Privy Council immediately caused him to be apprehended, and, having examined him with the assistance of the torture, induced him to make a full confession of all he knew; after which he was immediately hanged for misprision or concealment of treason. Five letters, written by Logan, were afterwards discovered among his papers, and served to throw the feeble though fortunate light upon the conspiracy, which has been already presented to the reader. These valuable documents, having been engrossed in the records of parliament, are yet preserved in the national Register House at Edinburgh.

It was a fact noted by the annalists of the time, that the unfortunate Charles I. was born on the very day (November 19.) on which the dismem

* Almost every known or attainable document regarding the Gowry Conspiracy has been engrossed at length in Mr Pitcairn's Criminal Trials; and the present account of the transaction is chiefly drawn up from that immense multitude of testimonies,

berment of the two brothers took place at the cross of Edinburgh. Before this period, James had become the father of a daughter named Elizabeth, distinguished in British history as the grandmother of King George I., and therefore as forming the channel by which the blood of the family of Hanover reached the throne. The King was heard to remark, on the birth of Charles, that the nineteenth day of the month seemed to be consecrated in some peculiar way to his usc. He was himself born on the 19th of June; he first saw his wife on the 19th of May; his eldest son Henry was born on the 19th of February; his daughter Elizabeth on the 19th of August; and now his second son was ushered into the world on the 19th of November.

1

CHAPTER X.

INTRIGUES PREPARATORY OF THE SUCCESSION.-DEATH OF ELIZABETH.

1601-1603.

THE Gowry Conspiracy may almost be consider-' ed the last event of King James's Scottish reign. The time betwixt that and his accession to the English throne about two years and a half-was spent in a state of tranquillity, to which there was no other exception than the hopes and fears arising from the intrigues which he set on foot for securing the object of his wishes.

James's right is so clear, in a genealogical point of view, that he is generally ridiculed by modern historians for the extreme anxiety and tenderness which he displayed on that point. But he had, in reality, great reason for the fears which seem to have agitated him. Although the claim of the Infanta of Spain, founded upon a remote descent from the House of Plantagenet, was the most visionary imaginable; yet it was held up by a great portion of the Catholics, in whose eyes religion went far beyond hereditary right. The claims of the descendants of Mary, the youngest daughter of Henry VII., were nothing in heraldry against