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wrote again 1 on behalf of the prisoners. Ruthven was
kept in close custody at the Castle Fort of Vesterås for
nearly four years. He was allowed two or three servants,
could walk about in the town, w especially to church,” and
had sufficient food provided for him, though he repeatedly
complained on that score. But after the month of March
1576, when his fellow-prisoner, Balfour, had made an
unsuccessful attempt to escape, prison rules were enforced
more rigidly, of which he complains bitterly in a letter
to his secretary, Hart. On the 10th of March 1577 he
received a royal gift of thirty Thaler. The last five
months and a half he did not live in the castle, but stayed
with a citizen of the town. Towards the end of his
unhappy, restless life he was denuded of means to such
an extent that on his death-bed he had to pawn his
clothes for fifty Thaler to his host. Thus he died in
February 1578. His faithful servant Gilbert at once
brought the news to the king and to Andrew Keith.
The former authorised him to redeem his clothes, but
Gilbert only succeeded in doing so toward the end of
September. There was not even money to pay the
sexton for ringing the bell at Ruthven’s funeral. A
certain Philip Kern ordered him to receive four “ lasts ”
of corn out of the castle’s storehouse for that service.
On the 17th of July 1574 the still more remarkable
trial of Balfour commenced. It was remarkable chiefly
in respect that it showed the almost incredible
vacillation of the king. At first he intended to spare his life,
but after the attempted flight he became so irritated, and
the terror of new conspiracies so grew upon him, that he
ordered him to be beheaded before Easter (1576). This
sentence is again repeated on the 8th of May when he is
1 To the king on 6th June 1575; to Duke Charles on the 19th of
Noyember of that year.
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