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signed by twenty-three Scottish officers.1 After having
pointed out the prisoner’s faithful services to the Crown
in the war, and having referred to De la Gardie’s pledged
word, they add that Gilbert had actually opposed the
execution of Mornay’s plans. Be this as it may; for the
king it sufficed that the two Scotsmen were implicated in
the matter; only their death could rid him of the fear
that they would place themselves at the head of the
disaffected.
True it is that both Ruthven and Balfour came of a
bad stock, and that they were early made familiar with
treason and murder. But to infer from it an incredible
moral corruption of Scotland in general, and the inherent
tendency of the Scots to plotting, seems to me going a
little too far.1 2 Surely other countries in the XVIth century
were as full of political intrigues, and Sweden suffered
from them above all from the time of the House of
Vasa to Gustavus III., and his murder in the Opera-House
of Stockholm.
But it is time to return to the Scottish levies. They
were sent in hot haste by the timid king, who does not
seem to have felt safe in their presence, to Livland and
Esthland. To supply them with two months’ pay John
III. had pawned a silver-gilt bowl valued at 26,000 Thaler,
he had even made arrangements with a rich English
merchant, William Brown, to buy the remaining claims of
the Scots for half the amount and set him free.3 Ruthven
had had hard work to satisfy his men, who were stirred
1 The names of the officers were : Jacobus Stewart, John Maxwell,
John Cockburn, James Strang (signifer), Ed. Methven, John Muir?
John Kurck, Henry Leyell, W. Patterson, George Sunderland, Thos.
Michell, Andrew Stark, W. Marshall; for the rest, who could not
write, a public notary named Patrick Creich signed the petition. Riks A.
2 Cf. Ödberg, l.c. 8 Ödberg, /.r., pp. 73 ff.
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