What else could he do? He locked them in, and was, through the failure of the man, in a quandary which made clear reflection necessary—and impossible.
‘It was strange that the man had not been trained in his task.’
If Oliphant is correctly reported, he had been trained, but ‘fainted.’
‘Why bind the King with a garter?’
In helpless pursuit of the forlorn idea of capturing him.
‘Why execute the enterprise when the courtiers were passing the window?’
Ruthven could not have known that they were coming at that moment; it was Gowrie’s ill-timed falsehoods, to the effect that the King had ridden away, which brought them there. Gowrie had not allowed for Henderson’s failure.
‘How could the King struggle successfully with the stalwart Master?’
He fought for his life, and Ruthven probably even then did not wish to injure him bodily.
‘Why was not the Master made prisoner?’