594 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 67 Lords swept on to Stirling, where the King was lying. Gray, Maitland, and Bellenden remained with him to prevent Arran from carrying him off. Arran tried to seize them, but failed, and escaped in disguise by the water-gate, flinging the keys into the Forth as he fled. James would have gone also, fearing probably his father's fate. He stole down to a postern, which he hoped to find unguarded, but the Lords had been too careful to leave a bolt-hole open. He was caged, and had to wait for his fate. On the and of No- November. vember 1 the town opened its gates. Two days later the castle surrendered also. The King was once more a prisoner in the hands of the Protestant nobles, and all was over. Thus rapidly the revolution was completed, and the hopes of the Catholics were again ' dashed ' at the mo- ment when they were about to be realized. A second raid, more efficient than the raid of Ruthven, destroyed the faction which for six years had distracted Scotland. No blood was shed, not even Arran's, who, stripped of his usurped wealth, was left to wander in poverty and to die at last in a brawl. The Hamiltons recovered their estates. Angus was reinstated in the splendid inheritance of the Douglases. The King was treated so much better than he expected that he was easily reconciled to his fate. The Lords affected a regret to him for the violence into which they had been driven. They assured him of their respect for himself. He 1 November 2 12.
