But after all his precautions, one postern of his jealous fortress was open, unguarded, and not commanded by himself. The larger Feudatories of the Kirklands, Balfour of Munquhany, Bellenden and Mudy, owed him no allegiance, and resented restrictions and encroachments from which they suffered as well as the Odallers. It was probably by their influence that the Articles of Indictment against the public enemy were enabled to reach the ear of Morton the Regent. Heavy as was this catalogue of oppressions, and those detailed in the Complaints of Sinclair of Aith and other Zetlanders, they would probably have failed to rouse the attention of the Scottish Government, had not Lord Robert’s dangerous and treasonable practices with Denmark awakened the Regent’s cupidity by the hopes of a profitable composition, or still more lucrative confiscation of his grant and plunder. But the criminal was now summoned to answer for his crimes, and warded in the Castle of Edinburgh, while by Royal proclamation (31st January 1575–6), the ferries and Firth were freed from his illegal restrictions; and during that year, a flood of complaints and evidence from natives and Strangers poured in against him. A Commission was issued (9th November 1576) to Mudy, the former Chamberlain of Orkney, and Henderson, one of the King’s Pursuivants, to examine witnesses on the spot as to his oppressions; and having finished this portion of their examination during the month of February 1576–7, they were further commissioned (24th April 1577) to inquire into the charges of high treason, and it was only under a heavy Bailbond of £10,000 by Lord Lyndsay, that Lord Robert was (5th August) removed from the Castle of Edinburgh to a less strait prison in Linlithgow Palace. It is easier to guess than to trace the secret influences by which he escaped from such overwhelming evidence of treason and crime. Morton, his enemy, was tottering to his fall—his friends Argyle and Lyndsay, were rising into power and favour. On 30th January 1578–9, he was allowed to revisit Orkney to prepare his defence, under heavy bail to return for trial on 30th September, but no trial ensued; he probably compounded for his head with his estate—his bailbond was cancelled by a Royal Warrant, and the whole parade of Commissions and probations ended in a temporary suspension of his powers in Orkney, without restitution or redress to the aggrieved Odallers, who were again abandoned to the ordinary misrule of the local collectors.