The Duke of Lennox was displaced by the Robert Bowes, the English resident agent, expected the Duke of Lennox would sail to France from Dumbarton " having well victualled his shippe there . " Other observers were anxious that the castle might become a foothold for French forces in Scotland allied to Lennox and his faction.
12.
Essex sent Christopher St Lawrence, son of Lord Howth, and a colonel of foot, to an island on the north-east, which carried two bridges connecting the castle to the west bank; the bridges were broken, and the island was victualled by bringing boats overland past the castle and setting them in the river upstream.
