Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/385

EXPULSION OF MENDOZA. telling the lady that her son had acted under constraint. In Scotland preparations were made swiftly and secretly to undo the effects of the raid of Ruthven, shake off the English Lords, and place the country once more at the disposition of the conspirators at Paris, if they cared to use it. Gowrie himself, blinded by the phantom of the succession, and exasperated at the broken promises of Elizabeth, imagined that he had no more interest in holding James prisoner. John Maitland lent abilities to the new intrigues, which were second only to his brother's. Colonel Stewart came back from London with as keen a hatred of the English alliance, as he had carried thither a desire to make it perpetual. 1 The Catholic noblemen were burning to recover their ascendancy. The King was at Falkland in charge of Angus and Mar, and a plot was rapidly formed, with James's privity, to rescue him. Young Seton stole off to France to tell de Tassis that a revolution was coming, and that Scotland would soon be Spanish again. 2 Warn- ings were sent to Huntley, Montrose, Crawford, and others of the Catholic faction, to hold themselves in readiness, and on the 7th of July 3 the King and Colonel Stewart slipped away to St Andrew's, and shut them- selves up in the castle there. The two Earls followed in 1 ' Col. Stewart est retourne d'Angleterre, ou les choses luy sont si mal succedees qu'il n'a peu choisir meilleur party que de se ranger du c6te du Roy et abandonner 1'aultre faction du tout, de sorte que le Roy mesme estbeaucoup refroydy.' Let- ter from a nobleman at St Andrew's to M. de Maynville, July 313: TEULET, vol. iii. 3 Tassis to Philip, June 29 July 9 : TEULET, vol. v 3 New Style. 24