John Chisholm had brought to him from Flanders another ten thousand crowns. He had from Parma five hundred crowns as a personal fee, and a pension of forty crowns a month. Almost all negotiations of the catholic nobles passed through his hands. But after the escape of Colonel William Sempill [q. v.] from his prison in Edinburgh, Pringle, the colonel's servant, indignant at not being better paid by Bruce, allowed himself to be captured in England, where he sold to the government a packet of letters from Huntly and others, including a long and important letter from Bruce himself directed to Parma (February 1589). Elizabeth sent the packet to James, and the whole conspiracy was exposed, to the consternation of the country. The king was stirred up to some feeble measures against the lords, and thereupon Bruce incited Huntly to the open insurrection which ended in the fiasco of the Brig of Dee. Bruce, whose name had already appeared in a decree of banishment pronounced against certain Jesuits and others, now remained comparatively quiet for some years. In December 1589 he was at Rome.
In the summer of 1592 Bruce reappeared for a moment, under the alias of Bartill Bailzie, on the fringe of the mysterious conspiracy of the 'Spanish Blanks,' mainly directed by Father William Crichton [q. v.]; but in August of that year, while the plot was hatching, Sir Robert Bowes [q. v.], the English agent at the Scottish court, sent to Burghley the astonishing news that Bruce, whom he still calls 'servant of the bishop of Glasgow,' had written to him from Calais, offering 'to discover the practices of Spain' (Cal. State Papers, Scotl. ii. 612, 618).
On 17 Nov. Bruce, still in appearance acting on behalf of his old friends, arrived once more in Scotland with money from Flanders, and on 8 Dec, to the surprise of Bowes, James passed an act of council granting 'remission' to Robert Bruce 'for high treason, negotiation with foreign princes and Jesuits for the alteration of religion,' &c. It is evident that Bruce was in earnest in his new character. He wrote from Brussels, 25 May 1594: 'I have travelled of late to discredit the Jesuits in all parts where they have procured to do harm heretofore ... to serve the queen, and hazard both life, means, and honesty without obligation,' and in July he sent from Antwerp information which proved to be accurate regarding the embarkation of Father James Gordon with others, with money for the insurgent earls (Hatfield Papers, iv. 536, 563; cf. Cal. Scotl. ii. 748).
Against Bruce's name in the register of the Scots college, it is noted without suspicion, in 1598, that he is still following the court. But his double dealing could not much longer escape the vigilance of his former allies. On 8 March 1699 Father Baldwin wrote to him from Antwerp, warning him that reports were in circulation that he had 'made submission to the King of Scots;' and presently Bruce was in custody at Brussels, charged with the misappropriation of funds entrusted to him, communication with English spies, the betrayal of the catholic cause, and, in particular, with preventing the fall of Dumbarton Castle into the hands of catholics for the King of Spain, by giving intelligence of its intended capture to 'the Scottish antipope' (R. O. Scotl. vol. lxv. Nos. 87, 88). Father Crichton, John Hamilton, the Earls Huntly, Errol, and Westmorland, with others, gave evidence against him. He remained in prison for fourteen months, according to Hospinianus, who tells a strange and incredible story of Crichton having become Bruce's accuser out of revenge, because Bruce had rejected the Jesuit's proposal that he should assassinate the chancellor Maitland (Historia Jesuitica, p. 291). After emerging from prison Bruce appears to have visited Scotland (October 1601) under the name of Peter Nerne, with certain companions whom he was accused of attempting to murder. This Robert Bruce alias Nerne, under torture in Edinburgh, 'confessed much villainy,' and said that he was in the pay of John Cecil [q.v. Suppl.]; and in the following month Cardinal d'Ossat, writing from Rome, warns Villeroi against certain spies then in France in the interest of Spain, mentioning Robert Bruce 'fort mauvais homme' and Dr. Cecil. Bruce died in Paris of the plague in 1602. For some time he had been preparing a work against the Jesuits, which an intelligencer from Brussels reported as being 'nearly ready to be printed' (Cal. Dom. Eliz. 18-28 Aug. 1599). His heir brought the unpublished book to the French nuncio, and asked 460 ducats for it, adding that the Huguenots had offered a thousand ducats (Vatican MSS.; Nunziatura di Francia. vol. ccxc. f. 146), The nuncio referred the matter to the pope, and the pope to the general of the society, who declined the offer with the remark that such writings were numerous, and that if he were to buy them all up he would be ruined.
[In addition to the sources referred to above: Spanish Papers, Eliz. iii. 580, 689-90, 595-7, iv. 144, 161. 201, aei, 478 and passim; Teulet's Papiers d'Etat, iii. 412-22, 469-71, 502-86; Calderwood's Church of Scotland, v. 14-36; Hamilton Papers, i, 673, 685; Thorpe's Cal. State Papers, Scotland, ii. 179, 180.]
