The Duke of Hamilton, the most influential of the Scottish noblemen who had offered their services to William, was making his arrangements in view of the coming crisis. He had brought in several companies of foot, which he billeted in the town. There seemed to be good reason to believe that before long he would be able to quarter them in the Castle. The command of the old fortress had been entrusted by James to the Duke of Gordon, ‘a man weak and wavering in courage, but bound by shame and religion.’ He had committed the almost inconceivable error of failing to provision the Castle, when he determined to hold it, and whilst the opportunity of procuring necessaries from the townspeople was still open to him. He had learnt that all the castles and forts in England had been given up, some of them, it was reported, by order of the exiled King himself; and no communication from any of his own party had brought him encouragement to further resistance. When, on the faith of a letter from William, he was offered indemnity and full assurance of protection, he agreed to what, under the circumstances, seemed to him to be an honourable capitulation. He was in the very act of evacuating the Castle, his furniture was actually being removed from it, when Dundee and Balcarres came to him. By representing to him the service which he might still render to the royal cause, and by appealing to his honour, they succeeded in persuading him to hold out until the Convention had given indications of its designs. When the Estates met, on the 14th of March, Hamilton secured a first victory for his party by getting himself appointed President. At his suggestion, negotiations were again opened with Gordon, by the intermediary of the Earls of Lothian and Tweeddale. They were so far successful that the wavering Governor promised to surrender on the following day. But, when the time came, he again evaded his engagement by insisting upon terms which he knew could not be accorded him. It was Dundee who had again worked the change. He had gone to the Castle and assured Gordon that the King’s friends had resolved to desert the Edinburgh Convention, and to summon another at Stirling, in virtue of the powers given to the Archbishop of St Andrews, Balcarres, and himself by a royal warrant received from Ireland. It is asserted by Dalrymple that ‘Balcarres, but still more Dundee,’ then urged the Governor to fire upon the city, in order to dissolve the Convention. From the account given by Balcarres, however, it would appear that this advice was given by the King’s ‘friends’ immediately after Dundee had ridden off with his fifty troopers. For failing to keep his engagement with the Convention, Gordon was declared a traitor. As the heralds made their proclamation in due form, under the very walls of his fortress he spiritedly retorted that they ought in decency to have doffed the King’s livery before they proscribed the King’s governor.