At Paris he made acquaintance with the English ambassador, Henry Neville, who reported him to Robert Cecil as devoted to Elizabeth's service on 27 February 1599.
These circumstances owe their importance to the light they throw on the obscurity of the celebrated "Gowrie conspiracy," which resulted in the killing of the earl and his brother by attendants of King James at Gowrie House, Perth, a few weeks after Gowrie's return to Scotland in May 1600.