270 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 65. covered at the same time that Lennox had asked the Duke of Guise for five hundred men to garrison Dum- barton. The ferment, already violent, became ten times hotter. The Earl of Gowrie, from some private quarrel, had assisted in the overthrow of Morton, and the feud which had risen in consequence between the Ruthvens and the Douglasses had been one chief cause of the disintegration of the Protestant party. English friends interposed and made up the quarrel, During an alter- cation in the council, the Duke of Lennox had called Gowrie poltroon ; Gowrie withdrew in anger from the Court, and with Angus, Lindsay, Glamys, the Earl of Mar, and the younger Maitland, who had inherited something of the genius of his brother the secretary, concerted measures to seize the government, and take the King out of Lennox's hands, for fear he might be carried off abroad. 1 Elizabeth had signified her ap- proval ; and it was hinted, in confirmation of Lennox's fears, that if both he and Arran were sent the way of Bizzio, slight inquiry would be made into their deaths by England. James had been hunting in Athol ; he passed through Perth on his way to Falkland in the middle of August ; and when riding out of the town, on the morning of the 22nd, he was surrounded by a party of men-at-arms, taken, and carried back to Gowrie House. Lennox, who 1 James himself was supposed to be not unwilling to go, and it was thought that he might imitate his grandfather and marry a daughter of the House of Lorraine. Note on the affairs of Scotland, May 30 : MSS. Scotland.
