Family records of the Bruces and the Cumyns

THE GOWRIE CONSPIRACY. 359
been enclosed, and a new headstone placed over it by his descendants. The old
stone still remains in tolerable preservation.
Several memoirs of Mr Robert Bruce have appeared, but, being taken from
a sectarian point of view, none of them do justice to his loyalty and disinter-
estedness. He was no follower of John Knox ; no ambitious and rebellious
churchman. He sought to place the religious establishment of his country on
a firm foundation, and to preserve his young king from Popish machinations.
He could not bring himself to believe in the Gowrie conspiracy, because these
two young men having passed scathlcss through the fiery ordeal of an education
in the University of Padua, he looked upon them as the destined supporters of
the Protestant cause, in good faith and truth. He never guessed at the feelings
of revenge and ambition which lurked beneath their courtly demeanour, fostered
by the study of Machiavelli, and brought still more into play by a residence in
the English Court ; for it has now been proved by letters (marked, " to be re-
turned by the bearer, that I may see them burnt ;" but which intention was frus-
trated by the catastrophe) that there WAS a conspiracy, not to kill the king, but
to take him prisoner to " Fast Castle" an almost inaccessible peel on the rocky
coast of the German Ocean, about 70 miles from Perth, and 25 from the English
border. This stronghold was the property of "Logan of Rcstalrig" — and of the
four conspirators he was the active agent. Lord Gowrie and his brother Alex-
ander, Master of Ruthven, never committed themselves in writing. Logan
carried on the correspondence with the fourth, whose name never has transpired.
He is addressed by Logan, with great respect, as " Right Honourable Sir," and
invited to a conference in the Canongate with " Mr A. R. ;" but he is most par-
ticularly warned to reveal nothing of the plot to Gowrie's old tutor, or to Lord
Home, " before the turn were done ; " for his lordship is "kittle to shoe behind''
(might kick out), " and the other" (Mr Wm. Rhynd) " would dissuade us from our
purpose with reasons of religion, which I can never abide." It is not then to be
wondered at that Mr Bruce could not bring himself to believe in a conspiracy