TJic Green Bag. far that certain of his retainers did not know what was expected of them, or how they were intended to act. This ignorance caused the miscarriage of the scheme, and at the same time threw an impenetrable mystery over the whole affair. The two Ruthvens, Cowrie and his brother, were slain in the struggle: nobody alive could be implicated in the conspiracy. So far, then, the plot was highly success ful; as far, that is, as to avoid detection is the object of plotters. On the other hand, they had not attained their object, and had both joined the choir invisible. A blot, to be sure, was cast on the king's character, which from a Presbyterian point of view was good, as far as it went. The ministers declined to announce from the pulpit their belief in James's innocence. They would speak as they "found themselves moved by God's spirit." So matters remained for about eight years; not exactly satisfactory to any one. But, in 1608, a certain attorney, named Sprot, indis creetly boasted in his cups that he could say something "an he would." He was seized and put to the torture, and the truth, or part of it, came out. The conspiracy, if conspir acy there was. had seemed like an endless thread. Now the other end of the thread was discovered, but it lay in the fingers of two dead men, and of a third who has not been identified unto this day. The whole business was like a plot of a novel, and was probably suggested by an Italian romance about a nobleman of Padua. In Sprot's possession, in 1608, were found copies of letters, written in 1600, by Logan of Restalrig, the owner of that East Castle, on a cliff above the North ern Sea. which Scott used as the model of Ravenswood Castle in "The Bride of Lammermoor." This Ix)gan. who died in 1606. had corresponded in 1600 with Lord Cowrie, and with another conspirator unknown. The letters were carried by an old man. Laird Bower, who could not read, and who in 1606 was also dead. This old gentleman's method was to cam- the letters to the recipients, and
then bring them back and burn them before the eyes of the writers. The system is good, but Laird Bower, meeting Sprot, asked him to read the letters aloud to him. Sprot kept copies which, in 1608, he gave up under tor ture. Then the game was cleared up. James was to be inveigled to the Cowrie House in Perth, was to be put into a boat on the Tay, and carried by sea to East Castle, where the rest of the scheme was to be on the lines of the novel about the nobleman of Padua. But, hitherto, nobody has discovered that novel, doubtless one of the countless tales in the Italian collections from which Shake speare used to borrow ideas of plays. Per haps the king was to be walled up alive, as in Poe's "Cask of Amontillado. In any case it is certain that the death of the father of Cowrie was to be avenged. But, James already having sons to succeed him, the political advantage to be gained is not appar ent. Again, the famous Casket Letters of Mary to Bothwell are known to have been in the last Lord Cowrie's possession, after which all trace of them is lost. Was the king to be "blackmailed" by aid of these letters? These points remain obscure. Clever as «:as the plot, it failed, precisely because Cowrie had kept the secret too well. It was neces sary to inveigle James into the Cowrie House at Perth. This was managed by Alexander Ruthven, who told the king as he rode to a hunt at Falkland that he had in custody at Perth a prisoner with a pot of gold. Tames, after killing his buck, rode to Perth, but he took twenty nobles and gentle men in his train. The conspirators had hoped that he would only bring two or three grooms. They had provided no dinner, but hastily procured one grouse, one hen, a shoulder of mutton, and strawberries. James dined apart, attended by the two conspira tors: the nobles dined in the hall: a meagre meal they must have had. After dinner every one asked. "Where is the king?" Then came out the idiotic futility of the plot. Cowrie declared that James had ridden away across the Inch of Perth, leaving by the back door.
