Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/35

1544.] and fickleness. The Douglases, who had so long been his pensioners, were now beyond doubt playing a double game. They had signed a bond to give the crown to Henry if the treaty was broken. They had now signed a second with the Cardinal against their 'auld enemies of England;' and although the Earl of Angus still sent private assurances that in secret he was true to the King, the word of a man who was a traitor to one side or the other could no longer be depended on. Arran was passive in the hands of Beton; and Beton, the undisputed master of Scotland, was making rapid use of his opportunities of evil. A specimen of his administration in the January of this year, 1544, will illustrate the purpose for which he was seeking power, and the spirit from the dominion of which the King of England was labouring to rescue the unhappy country.

Lord Ruthven, the hereditary Provost of Perth, was one of the few nobles who had looked favourably on the Reformers, and within the limits of his jurisdiction the leaven had dangerously spread. In the late autumn, on Allhallows eve, a noticeable scene had taken place in the church of the town. A friar, in the course of a sermon, told the people that the morrow was the day in which they were to offer for their fathers' souls in purgatory. One of his audience, a man named Robert Lamb, stood up, holding a Bible in his hand, and exclaimed, 'I charge you in the name of Christ Jesus, whose verity is here written, that ye teach nothing to