JAMES'S GOWRIB.

Tns Gowrie conspiracy is the most mysterious affair in British history. Those who deny the participation of Mary in the murder of Darnley, and accuse the Presbyterian party of the crime, must allow that whether Court or Opposition were guilty, both sides had some intelligible motive for their conduct. In its main purpose and its agents the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury was clear enough : the feeling attached to it is rather one of wonder at the number of persons engaged, and the cool business- like persistence in the attempt, than any absolute mystery, beyond the doubts respecting the complicity of the King and his motives. But the Gowrie conspiracy, on the idea of the Earl's guilt, seems an atrocious crime without motive or means : for if we adopt the notion that Gowrie and his brother were bribed to seize James and transport him to the Court of England, Elizabeth's object is not very intelligible, and the force at the disposal of the Ruthvens by no means adequate to the occasion. The theory of Mr. James on the subject is as probable as any, espe- cially when regard is had to the character of the King as developed by re- cent research into Overbury's business. In the view of our royal his- toriographer, King James was jealous of Alexander Ruthven's favour with the Queen, and suspected Gowrie of treasonable designs against himself, as an instrument of the English Court. He therefore got up "a King's plot," and murdered the brothers, in the bungling manner which history describes, to gratify his vengeance and his fears.

This view is ingeniously worked out in Gowrie or the King's Plot, with no greater deviation from history than is allowable, and with iv.ell-contrived accessories to vary and support the record. Instead of a!nung at a match with the Lady Arabella Stuart, as was reported at the time, Gowrie is attached to Julia Douglas, a daughter of the Earl of Mor- ton by a private marriage. On her father's execution, the lady is carried to Italy by her grandfather ; and Gowrie meets her during his residence !.! Padua as a student. This action not only varies the work by a uUalige of place,—the story opening at Padua, and continuing for some tune. in Italy and France,—but introduces the subject of astrology, which Jula'a grandfather pursues. Be is also suspected of forbidden arts ;

which suspicion gives rise to difficulties from the Inquisition during his life, and a pursuit of Julia after his death. The foreign tour also serves to lay the foundation of a private enmity, which, by means of the Ram- say who figures in history as a main " defender" of James from a danger he never perhaps was in, pursues Gowrie to the death. Mr. James, however, is too skilful, and we may add too philosophical, to ascribe the plot to the vengeance or ill-governed feelings of private individuals. The King's hatred and jealousy are distinctly marked as emanating from himself. The utmost that the subordinate actor does is to whet the ha- tred of the Monarch, but in such a way that he rather offers himself as a tool for James's purpose than in any way governs the event.

Gonvie or the King's Plot is a skilful use of historical disquisition as the groundwork of a romance; the argument being sustained by structure and narrative, rather than in a direct form. The story and its management exhibit the knack of the well-practised novelist. The events are probable enough for fiction, well connected together, and lead in due time to the catastrophe. The reflections are appropriate, the narrative advances steadily, and there are scenes of good effect. The composition wants spontaneity. There is neither gush nor flow in the style, and no novelty in the images : yet the author gets along, though rather heavily. The characters are just enough, but common to no- vels, and rather deficient in individuality and national traits : Italian, French, Scotch, and English, have all the same cast of mind, varied only by dialect or formal terms. This remark does not apply to King James ; who is conceived with great nicety of judgment, and executed with considerable felicity. His pedantry, ungainliness, coarseness, hypo- erisy, and indifference to life, with the slight relief of bonhommie and the absence of affectation, are all well indicated; and that not as a mere assemblage of qualities, but as a human character. The following passage exhibits him alter Gowrie's return, in no very good humour, having been baffled in getting possession of Julia, over whom he intended to Clial the right of wardship, fancying she had great wealth.

"Notwithstanding his injunctions to others, the King could not altogether re- strain his own demeanour, but remained sullen and irritable all day. He inquired twice whether the Earl had arrived in Edinburgh; and when told that he had come to the house of one of his relations, whither a number of the old friends of his family Hocked to meet and congratulate him, he exclaimed, The fickle fools! they go as blithesome to a burial.' "The following morning, as he was seated with the Queen, receiving some of the nobles of the court, with the Dutchess of Lennox, Gowrie's sister, on one side of Anne of Denmark, and Beatrice Ruthven behind her chair, some load shoats, uttered in the streets of the town, made themselves heard even in the royal apart- ments.

"What are the fools skirling at now?' cried the King; is it another Tolbooth fray?' " Not so, your Majesty,' replied Lord Inchaffray, who had just entered: as I rode hither a moment ago, the young Earl of Gowrie was passing up the street, with a large number of noble gentlemen his friends, and some hundreds of people were running after his horse's heels, shouting and wishing him joy on his return.' "James's brow darkened immediately; and-, lolling his tongue in his cheek, with a bitter and meaning smile, he said, load enough for &Werel persons to hear,

There were as many people who convoyed his father to the scaffold at Stirling.'

"The Dutchess of Lennox instantly turned deadly pale, and fell; so that she would have struck her head against the Queen's chair, had she not been caught in the arms of her sister Beatrice.

"The court was immediately thrown into strange confusion; and the King, as if totally unconscious that the illness of the young Dutchess was produced by his own act, exclaimed Dell's in the woman! what's the matter with her? The room's not so hot.'

"1 But your Majesty's words were sharp,' said Beatrice: 'my sister is not ac- customed to hear the death of a father she loved made sport of.'

"'You are saucy, mistress, I think,' said the King, frowning upon her.

"'And your Majesty unkind,' said Beatrice, boldly. Bat Anne of Denmark in- terfered, and caused some of the gentlemen present to assist in conveying the Dutchess to another room.

"James himself felt in some degree, it would appear, that he had acted in a cruel and discourteous manner; for he said, in a low but somewhat apologetic tone, 'Fogs! I forgot she was the Earl's daughter. One cannot always remember, in this good land of ours, who is of kin to those who have had their heads chopped "He then turned to other subjects, seeming soon to forget altogether what had occurred; and when, a few minutes afterwards, Gowrie himself was introduced, unconscious of all that had taken place, the King received him with the utmost cordiality and kindness; displaying remarkably on this occasion that detestable hypocrisy which he considered one of the essential parts of kingcraft. If any- thing, his manner was too condescending and gracious, approaching to a degree of familiarity more repugnant to the feelings of the young Earl than haughtiness could have beea. After having given him his hand to kiss, be pinched his ear, called him a truaut, and insisted upon examining him in what he called the hu- manities; much to the annoyance of most of the gentlemen of his court, many of whom understood neither the Latin nor Greek languages, and some of whom did not understand their own. The Earl's replies gave his Majesty satisfaction, at least apparently; and he went so far as to pronounce him a good scholar and a credit to the country. "This gracious speech he followed up by commanding him to come to his breakfast on the following morning; and there he commenced a conversation, with the Earl, who was standing behind his chair, the coarseness of which, in point of language, prevents it from here being written down; but the nature of which may be divined, when I state that it referred to the murder of David Rizzi°, and the fright which that horrible event had occasioned to the unfortunate Mary when about to become the mother of the very Monarch who spoke. "Gowrie felt that the choice of the subject was intended as an insult to him- self, from the part which his grandfather had borne in that lamentable transac- tion; but he repressed all angry feeling, not alone from respect for the royal au- thority, but also because he had a deep internal conviction that the conduct of his ancestor on that occasion could not be justified, and that the King had a fair sub- ject of reproach against his family, which, upon every Christian principle and every honourable feeling, should have been restrained to silence, considering all that bad passed since, but which might naturally be remembered, if not rankle, in a weak grovelling mind. He made no reply whatever then, and left the con- versation to seek another course; when suddenly, to his surprise, Colonel Stuart entered the room, and was greeted by James as an invited guest. "The spirit of his race now rose in Ins bosom. He saw before him, invited ap- parently to meet him there that morning, the man who, when his father, after an imperious order from the King to quit the realm within fourteen days, lingered for a few hours longer at Dundee to settle the affairs of his family, and to lure a ship to carry him abroad, pursued him to the very port where he was about to embark, and brought his head to the block. His patience could not endure any more; and, drawing back a step, he said, think, your Majesty, it may be better for me now to retire.'

" ' Come, come, my Lord Gowriei ' said the King, 'I will not have you look down upon Colonel Stuart. He is a worthy gentlemen, and has done this Crown good service. Neither will I have you seek quarrel with him in regard to passages long gone.' "'Sir; answered the Earl, with a low bow, I will never seek that man; but it is not fit that he should cross my path. As to seeking quarrel with him, aguila non eapit museas. I now beseech your Majesty to pardon me for retiring ';—and he withdrew slowly from the royal presence."

Before the lovers reach Scotland, each receives what is intended for a warning against the match. This is very cleverly managed by Mr. James : there is a touch of the true ghostly thrill about the visitation, yet in both cases it may be resolved into a dream or delusion. The following is the warning to Gowrie.

"It was a large, wide, old-fashioned chamber, the walls of which had no hang- ings, although two wide pieces of a tapestry with which the whole room had pro- bably formerly been decorated were drawn across the windows. On one side of the room was a large bed, almost lost in the extent of the floor, and having cur- tains of a dingy green hue, and of a silk stuff, the manufacture of which had even then longed passed away, formerly called cendal. There was a small round table in the middle of the room, a mirror in a black oak frame standing forth from the wall, supported by two iron bars, a washing-table in the corner, and two or three chairs. That was all that it contained; and, as I have said, it was very large and very gloomy. Nevertheless, although the year was approaching winter, there was something close and oppressive in the atmosphere. It felt as if the windows

had not been opened for many a year. Gowrie did not remark it, but sat down at the table and fell into thought again. He remained thus for more than an hour. I have called it thought; but yet it was of that trance-like character wherein all things seem more like impressions than ideas—when dead affections rise up from the tomb of memory in the shape of living existences and from the future the

shadows of unborn events, clad in the forms of actual realities, present themselves for warning or encouragemen.. There is no continuity, there IS no arrangement, there is no operation of the intellect. Mind sits as a spectator while the pageant pares, called up before our eyes by some unnamed power. What 1'Who can say ? There are things within us and without us that we know not

of—that the hardest-handed metaphysician has never been able to grasp.

"In the midst of such fits the body will sometimes renew the struggle, and strive to regain its power, especially if anything affects it strongly. The Earl seemed to feel the oppressive closeness of the room. He rose, went to the win- dow near the bed, pulled down the tapestry, and threw open the rattling small- paned casement. It looked to the East; and the bright moon, within a few days of the full, peeped in from above the Alps, pouring a long line of splendour over the floor. He knew not, indeed, that he had moved. The external eye might see the casement and the moon, and the faint line of mountains flooded with silver light; but the mind saw not. It had other visions; and, leaning his arms upon the bar on which played the part of the casement that opened, he remained buried in the same reverie. Its tone was melancholy—not exactly sad, but of that high grave stern cast which seems to rob the things of earth of all their unreal brightness; stripping off the gilding and the gauds, and leaving the bard leaden forms alone, while another light than that of the world's day spreads around, as if streaming from a higher sphere, and showing all the emptiness and the nakedness of the illusions of the earth.

"How long he had remained thus I know not, and he himself did not know; but something—what, he could never tell—made him suddenly turn round. "How shall I tell what followed ? Was it an illusion of the fancy? Was it a dream ? Was it a reality? Who shall any? But there before him was a face and form well known, though never seen in life. It was that of a tall dark pale Man, with traces of sickness on his face, a bloody dagger in his hand, and marks of gore upon his arm. His portrait hung in the Earl's palace at Perth, though with a more glowing cheek and in unspotted robes. But there he stood before him now, as if the grave had given up its dead—his father's father, the slayer of the hapless Rizzio. There was the sante haggard look, the same ashy cheek, the same rolling eye with which he had sunk into a seat in the presence of his Queen when the dreadful deed was done, and the full horror of the act was poured upon his conscience. There the same gasping movement of the lips with which he called for water to allay the burning thirst which was never to be quenched but by the cold cup of death. A pale hazy light spread around him, and he seemed to raise his hand with a menacing gesture. He spoke, or Gowrie thought he spoke, in tones low and stern. 'Shall the blood of Douglas and of Ruthven mingle once more?' he said. 'Shall the child of him who denied all participa- tion in the act he prompted, and left his betrayed friend to perish in a distant land, unite her fate to the heir of him who was destroyed ! Beware, boy, beware! Upon the children's children the blood of the slain shall call for vengeance; and the unborn of the dark hour shall seek a fatal retribution!'

"As he spoke, the Earl's head seemed to become giddy with awe and surprise; the figure vanished; all that the room contained became indistinct; and when Lord Gowrie again opened his eyes, he found himself lying across the bed with his clothes on, and with the morning light streaming brightly through the case- ment."

This fiction is published in the same form as the collected edition of Mr. James's Works, three volumes in one. The speculation results from a sort of compact entered into with Government at the time Mr. James was maintaining the cause of authors and copyright against Mr. Gladstone, who took the "public" view. "Although the right of the British author was never contested," says Mr. James, "some ap- prehension was expressed—I believe by Sir Robert Peel—lest the grant- ing of increased means of protecting that right might have a tendency to increase the price of books. When M. Gladstone informed me of this fact, I stated my own opinion to be directly the reverse I need not enter into all theiargnments I used to show that such must naturally be the case ; bufristated at the time, my readiness, upon cer- tain acts being passed, to use every means in my power to avert the evil which Government apprehended, by making an effort to diminish the price of books." Part of this effort is the present volume: but Mr. James is of opinion that in this line the experiment will not succeed, and he does not intend to repeat it. In the first part of this conclusion we concur. 9awrie is a clever book, but its subject is hardly of a class to attract the merely popular reader; nor is the treatment of a kind likely to commartd the extensive circulation requisite to remove the objection of Sir Robert Peel, if he had such works as this in his mind.