Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/453

 1584] EXPULSION OF MENDOZA. 43> leading promptings ; but Gowrie's fate was coming upon him, and he allowed himself to be persuaded. An<nis and Mar undertook the capture of the King. Gowrie pretended that he was going over into France, and went down to Dundee, intending to cross by water to Tantallon, where Lord Lindsay, the two Hamiltons, and, as he hoped, the English had agreed to join him. 1 As it was with Guise and the invasion of England how- ever, so it was with the plots against James. There were too many confederates. There had been too much talk beforehand, and the secret had been betrayed to the Earl of Arran. Stewart, who had been in England with Colville, followed Gowrie with a party of horse to Dundee, captured him, and carried him off to Holyrood. Angus and Mar were more successful. They missed James, but accompanied by Glamys, they surprised and captured Stirling Castle, and sent out a proclamation inviting the country to rise and join them. ' The King,' they said, ' was abused by persons of low estate.' He was surrounded ' by a young and indolent company of Papists, atheists, and furtherers of the Bloody Council of Trent.' 'The fearers of God' 2 were in danger of massacre, and had taken arms in the King's interests, and their own. Couriers flew to Lindsay at Tautallon, to the Hamiltons at Berwick, and on to London to the Court, to entreat for help. The conditions were fulfilled 1 Bowes to Walsingham, April 4 14: MSS. Scotland. ' Effect of the petition delivered by the credit of Mr Colville, in the names of the Earls of Angus, Mar, and Glamys, entered into the action of Stirling, April, 1584:' MS8. Ibid.