Ayrshire > Volume 1

128 HISTORY OF AYRSHIRE
His Majesty would have it done, and promise, when it
was done, a reward." To this plot Glencairn was privy.
The King's reply was very politic : — " If he were in the
Earl of Cassillis's place, and were as able to do His
Majesty's good service there, as he knoweth him to be,
and thinketh in him a right good will in him to do it,
he would surely do what he could for the execution of it,
believing verily to do thereb}/, not only an acceptable
service to the King's Majesty, but also a special benefit
to the realm of Scotland, and would trust verily the
King's Majesty would consider his service in the same."
It was in this same communication that Henry " did
not mislike the offer," but he was too strategic to commit
himself, and in his reply he managed to leave the whole
responsibility with Cassillis and his friends. But they,
while willing enough to slaughter the Cardinal, had no
mind to commit themselves to such a desperate venture
without the direct countenance of Henry, and without
some definite assurance of the reward ; and so far as
any of the Ayrshire nobles were concerned, the scheme
went no further.
In such fashion, with plot and counter plot, with
intrigue and counter intrigue, runs the story of the
times. It is hard to define, it is impossible to explain,
the workings of the policy of Cassillis, Glencairn, and
their friends. In 1557 we find Cassillis resisting the
making of a Scots invasion of England, and declaring,
on the other hand, to Lord Westmoreland, one of the
English Commissioners, that he would never be French,
and that the Scots " would die, every mother's son of
us," rather than be subject to England. The year
following he was one of the Scots' Commissioners to
France — he who had been so powerful a supporter of
the English marriage — to arrange for the marriage of
Queen Mary with the Dauphin. This was the last public
act of his life. While on his way home, he was one of the
Commissioners who met with a mysterious death at
Dieppe, where, it is supposed, they were poisoned
because they refused to sanction the Dauphin wearing