a Conspiracy when both the force of Laws whereof themselves were Governours was utterly extinguished and the Minds of the most part of Men were either snared with partnership of the mischievous Fact or carried with Hope or Forestalled with Rewards or discouraged and bridled with Fear of so great a Power on the other part But how soever this be yet it will be good to see throughly both the order of the doing the unadvisedness inconstancy and end of their Devices For thereby shall ye perceive that there wanted not desire to hide the Fact but that the fury of a distracted Mind overthrew all the Order of their Counsels while sometime as desirous to beguile publick Fame they endeavoured to keep close their intended Mischief yet they dealt therein so openly as careless of their Estimation they seemed to make small account how Men judged of their Doings For at his preparing to go to Glascow the Poison was given him secretly and they thought they had sufficiently well provided that he should in his absence from them be consumed with pining sickness But the rest of their Dealings toward him were so cruelly handled that though his Disease should have happened to be natural yet it would have been suspected for poisoning For he her Husband the Father of her only and first-born Child the Father I say of that Son whose Christening was solemnized with that great Pomp and Glory being escaped away in a manner naked out of his House flaming in fire tormented by the way with grievous pain when he lay at Glascow of a dangerous sickness likely to die What did his excellent good Wife the while What did she At the first news of it did she haste to him in post Doth she with her Presence with her friendly familiar Speech or with her loving Countenance comfort him in sickness When she cannot stay him in Life cometh she to receive his last Breath Closeth she his Eyes at his dying Doth she the other kind Duties of honest Matrons No But she that had now let him escape to go and die and hoped that he could not linger out his unhappy Life much longer she goeth a quite contrary way into another Country in progress and with her fair Adonis she visiteth Noble-men's Houses and staineth the Houses that harboured them with the Spots of their Unchastities and just about the time of her Husband's Death as she guessed by the strength and working of the Poison she returns to Sterline When the Matter wrought not so fast as she expected for the Strength of his Youth had wrestled with the Soreness of his Pain lest she should seem to have altogether forsaken her Duty she daily prepares to go to Glascow but never goeth At the last disappointed of the Hope that she had conceived in her Heart she taketh her self to other Devices She cometh to Edinburgh and there calleth to Counsel her Adulterer and a few other privy of those Secrets There they decree that in any wise the King must be slain yet were they not fully advised with what kind of Death he should be murthered which may easily be gathered by her Letter wherein she partly compareth her self to Medea a bloody Woman and a poisoning Witch Also by another of her Letters wherein she asketh Advice about the Poisoning of him The King who had already tasted of her lovely Cup doubting whether he were better any more to believe her flattering Speeches or to fear the shrewdness of her Nature though sometimes he despaired not of her Reconciliation yet was evermore fearful and suspicious but when he saw that neither his Life nor his Death were in his Power he was constrained to purse up his passed Injuries to dissemble his present Fear and to feign himself some Hopes for time to come So was he led out not as a Husband but carried out as a Coarse or rather drawn as it were to the Shambles The Queen gloriously shewing her self in pompous manner goeth before in Triumph over the young Gentleman vexed with all kind of Miseries tormented with Poison entrapped with Treasons and drawn to Execution There follows after the triumphant Carr the ancient Enemies to his Father's House brought thither on purpose that they also might feed their Eyes with that woful Spectacle and whose Death at hand they looked for they might in the mean time take pleasure of the Sorrow of his Heart And that no Ceremony of solemn Sacrifices might be wanting Iohn Hamilton Archbishop of St. Andrews was present as their Priest a Man before defiled with all kind of Wickedâ—ess pamper'd with the Spoils and Murthers of his Country-men an old Conqueror of many murthering Victories The People all along the Way looking pitiously shewed a Fore-telling of no good Luck to come The Queen's Companions could neither tell their Sadness nor hide their Gladness when the heinous Outrage of the vile Fact intended held their unmeasurable Joy in suspence upon expectation of the Success Thus led they him to Edinburgh not into the Queen's Palace Why so Lest the Infection of the pestilent Disease forsooth might hurt her young Son As though they that be poison'd were also to be shunn'd for fear of Infection But the truer Cause was this lest his Presence should trouble them in interrupting their free enjoying their Pleasures and their Consultations about his Murther Whither then is he led Into the most desolate part of the Town some time inhabited while the Popish Priests Kingdom lasted but for certain Years past without any Dweller in such an House as of it self would have fallen down if it had not been botched up for the time to serve the turn of this Night's Sacrifice Why was this place chiefly chosen They pretended the wholsomness of the Air. O good God! Going about to murther her Husband seeketh she for a wholsom Air To what use Not to preserve his Life but to reserve his Body to Torment Here to tend her wisely diligent Attendance and her last Care of her Husband's Life she feareth lest he should by Preventing Death be delivered from pain she would fain have him feel himself die But let us see what manner of wholsomness of Air it is Is it among dead Men's Graves to seek the preserving of Life For hard by there were the Ruins of two Churches on the East side a Monastery of Dominick Friars on the West a Church of our Lady which for the desolateness of the place is called The Church in the Field on the South-side the Town-Wall and in the same for commodious passage every way is a Postern door on the North side are a few Beggars Cottages ready to fall which some time served for Stews for certain Priests and Monks the name of which place doth plainly disclose the form and nature thereof for it is commonly called Thieves Lane. There is never another House near but the Hamilton's House which is about a Stone 's cast distant and that also stood void Thither removeth the Archbishop of St.
endeavoureth to divert all Suspicions from her she goeth to her Husband she kisseth him she giveth him a Ring for Pledge of her Love she talketh with him more lovingly than she was wont to do and promiseth more largely she feigneth that she had great Care of his Health and yet her companying whither Adulterer she surceaseth not They that more nearly noted these things prognosticated no good thing to come For how much the greater Tokens that the Queen shewed of reconciled Affection so much the more Cruelty did every Man in his Heart fore conceive of all her Intentions For else whence cometh that sudden Change so great Care for him whom she had poisoned the Month before whom even lately she not only wished dead but desired to see him die whose Death she set her Brother yea both her Brethren to procure and she like a Master of Mischief thrust forth the King to fight and her self in the mean time prepared for his Burial Not past a few Months before she her self was desirous to die because she loathed to see the King alive Whence cometh now this sudden Care of his Health I looked she should say she was reconciled to him Were you reconciled to your Husband whom you sent away into that Desart that Camp of Furies as the Poet calleth it For whom among Brothel houses of Harlots among Beggars Cottages among Thieves lurking-holes you prepared a House so open to pass through that you left therein more Entries than Men to shut them you that allured and assembled Russians to his Slaughter and Thieves to his Spoil You that drove away his Servants that should have defended his Life You that thrust him out naked alone unarmed among Thieves in danger to be slain When in all this miserable State of your Husband your Adulterer in the mean time dwelt in your Palace daily haunted your Chamber Day and Night all Doors were open for him whilst your poor Husband debarred all Company of the Nobility his Servants forbidden to come at him or sent away from him was forsaken and thrust away into a solitary Desart for a mocking Stock and I would to God it had been for a mocking Stock only Of his other Servants I enquire not I do not curiously question why they went away why they then especially forsook the King when he chiefly needed their Help and Service when he was newly recovered When he began to go abroad and had no other Company Of Alexander Durain I cannot keep Silence whom you had for his Keeper and your Spy. What was there for him to espy Was there any thing for him to bring News of to an honest Matron loving to her Husband faithful in Wedlock and fearful of a Partner of his Love Feared she lest he a young Gentleman beautiful and a King should cast wanton Eyes upon some other Woman in her Absence No God wot for that was it that she most desired for she her self had practised to allure him thereto before she her self had offered him the Occasions and of her self shewed him the means This was it that most grieved her while she was seeking Causes of Divorce that she could not find in him so much as any slender Suspicion of Adultery Why then were Spies set about him to watch him Was it not that none of the Nobility none of his Servants nor any Stranger at all should come at him that no Man should speak with him that might disclose the Treason and forewarn him of his Danger This same very Alexander how carefully she saveth when she goeth about to kill her Husband How late she sendeth him away when the rest were gone even at the very Point of her Husband's Death when she had now no more need of Espials For the day before the Murder was committed there was none of the Ministers that were privy to her secret Councils left behind but only Alexander He when he saw that Night no less doleful than shameful to approach prepareth as himself thought a fine subtil Excuse to be absent so as rather Chance might seem to have driven him out than he himself willing to have forsaken his Master He putteth Fire in his own Bed straw and when the Flame spread further he made an out-cry and threw his Bedding half singed out of the King's Chamber But the next day when that Excuse served not so handsomly as he desired for that in the Queen's hearing the King very sweetly entreated him not to leave him alone that Night and also desired him to lie with himself as he had often used to do for the King entirely loved him above all the rest Alexander in Perplexity wanting what to answer added to his first Excuse Fear of Sickness and pretended that for commodious taking of Physick for his Health he would lie in the Town When this would not yet serve him the Queen added her Authority and told the King That he did not well to keep the young Man with him against the Order of his Health and therewithal she turned to Alexander and bade him go where was best for him And forthwith as soon as the Word was spoken he went his Way I will not here precisely trace out all the Footings of these wicked doings neither will I curiously enquire whether that former Day 's Fire were happened by Casualty or kindled by Fraud Neither will I ask why he that had so often been received to lie in the King 's own Bed doth now this only Night especially refuse it Let us suppose that Sickness was the Cause thereof This only one thing I ask what kind of Sickness it was that came upon him at that very instant and before Morning left him again without any Physicians help and whereof neither before nor since nor at that present there ever appeared any Token But I trust though he hold his Peace ye all sufficiently understand it In the Man guilty in Conscience of the mischievous Intention Fear of Death overcame Regard of Duty Had it not been that Alexander before time a Spy and Tale-bearer now a Forsaker and Betrayer of his Master was joined to her in Privity of all these wicked doings would not the Queen so cruel in all the rest have found in her Heart to bestow that one Sacrifice upon her Husbands Funerals While these things were in doing the Night was far past and my Lady Rerese a lusty valiant Souldieress before Sign given cometh forth into the Field out of Array abroad she goeth getteth her to Horse-back and though she were somewhat afraid as one that foreknew the Storm to come yet she sate still upon her Horse tarrying for the Queen but yet a good pretty way from the House In the mean time Paris cometh Then the Communication brake and they rose to depart For by and by upon sight of him came to her Remembrance that heinous Offence that without great Propitiations could not be purged forsooth that the Queen had not danced at the Wedding-feast of Sebastion the
nothing by it for what the Examiners would have had kept secret that the People cried out openly that which they suppressed burst forth and that which they cloaked in secret it breaketh out into broad light But there was a Proclamation set forth with pardon of the Fact and promise of Reward to him that would utter it Why who had been so mad that he durst in so manifest peril of his Life bear Witness or give Information against the Judges themselves in whose power lay his Life and Death It was likely forsooth that they which had murdered a King would spare him that should disclose the Murderer especially when all Men saw that the Enquiry of the King's Slaughter was quite omitted and the other Enquiry severely pursued concerning Books accusing the Slaughter What manner of Judgment it was whereby Bothwel was quitted you have heard forsooth by himself procured the Judges by himself chosen the Accusers by himself suborned lawful Accusers forbidden to be present unless they would yield their Throats to their Enemies Weapons the Assize appointed neither to a day according to the Law of the Land nor after the manner of the Country nor to enquire of the Murder of the King but of such a Murder as was alledged to be committed the day before that the King was slain Here when Bothwel by his Friendship and Power and the Queen by Prayer and Threatning travailed with the Judges do you now expect what Sentence Men chosen against Law and against the Custom of the Land have pronounced In their Judgment they touched the matter nothing at all only this they have declared That it was no lawful Judgment in this that with a special Protestation they provided That it should not be prejudicial to them in time to come Then that all Men might understand what it was that they sought by Sword Fire and Poison they jumble up Marriages one is Divorced another is Coupled and that in such posting speed as they might scant have hasted to furnish a Triumph of some Noble Victory Yet that in these unlawful Weddings some shew of lawful Order might be observed the goodly Banes were openly proclaimed for publishing whereof though the Minister of the Church was threatned with Death if he did it not yet at the time of his publishing himself openly protested That he knew Cause of Exception why that Marriage was not lawful But in such a Multitude assembled how few were they that knew it not Sith all could remember well that Bothwel had then alive two Wives already not yet Divorced and the third neither lawfully Married nor orderly Divorced But that was not it that was intended to observe the Ceremonies of lawful Order but as they do use in Interludes they provided a certain shew or disguised counterfeiting of common usage For he that hath oft brokeâ— all Humane Laws and hath cast away all Conscience and Religion could easily neglect the Course of God's Law. Now I suppose I have briefly declared in respect of the greatness of the matter and yet perhaps in more words than needed the plainness of the profes considered of what purpose by what counsel and upon what hope that heinous murder was attempted with what cruelty it was executed by what tokens advertisements testimonies and letters of the Queen her self the whole matter is proved and so plainly proved that it may be as openly seen as if it lay before your eyes yet will I shew forth the testimony of the whole people which I think worthy not to be neglected For several men do commonly deceive and are deceived by others but no man deceiveth all men nor is deceived by all This testimony of the people is this When at the Queens going abroad among the people the greatest part of the Commons were wont to make Acclamations wishing her well and happily with such Speeches as either Love enforceth or Flattery inventeth now at her going after the Kings slaughter to the Castle through the chief and most populous Street of the Town there was all the way a sad glooming silence And when any woman alone of the multitude had cryed God save the Queen another by and by so cryed out as all men might hear her So be it to every one as they have deserved Albeit these things were thus done as I have declared yet there are some that stick not to say that the Queen was not onely hardly but also cruelly dealt with that after so detestable a fact she was removed from her Regency and when they could not deny the fact they complained of the punishment I do not think there will be any man so shameless to think that so horrible a fact ought to have no punishment at all But if they complain of the grievousness of the penalty I fear lest to all good men we may seem not to have done so gently and temperately as loosly and negligently that have laid so light a penalty upon an offence so heinous and such as was never heard of before For what can be bone cruelly against the authour of so outragious a deed wherein all laws of God and man are violated despised and in a manner wholly extinguished Every several offence hath his punishment both by God and man appointed and as there be certain degrees of evil deeds so are there also encreases in the quantities of punishments If one have killed a man it is a deed of it self very heinous What if he have killed his familiar friend what if his father what if in one soul fact he hath joyned all these offences together surely of such a one neither can his life suffice for imposing nor his body for bearing nor the Judges policy for inventing pain enough for him Which of these faults is not comprised in this offence I omit the mean common matters the murdering of a young gentleman an innocent her countrey-man her kinsman her familiar her Cousin-german Let us also excuse the fact if it be possible She unadvisedly a young Woman angry offended and one of great innocency of life till this time hath slain a lewd young man an adulterer an unkind husband and a cruel King. If not any one but all these respects together were in this matter they ought not to avail to shift off all punishment but to raise some pity of the case But what say you that none of these things can so much as be falsly pretended The fact it self of it self is odious in a woman it is monstrous in a wife not onely excessively loved but also most zealously honoured it is uncredible and being commited against him whose age craved pardon whose hearty affection required love whose nighness of kindred asked reverence whose innocency might have deserved favour upon that young man I say in whom there is not so much as alledged any just cause of offence thus to execute and spend yea to exceed all torments due to all offences in what degree of cruelty shall we account it But let these
Ne vous voyant selon qu' avez promis I' ay mis la main au papier pour escrire D'un different que je voulu transcrire Ie ne scay pas qael sera vostre aduis Mais Ie scay bien qui mieux aymer scaura Vous diriez bien que plus y gaignera O Goddess have of me Compassion And shew what certain Proof I may give which shall not seem to him vain Of my Love and fervent Affection He alas is he not already in possession Of my Body of Heart that refuses no pain Nor Dishonour in this life uncertain Offence of Friends nor worse affliction For him I esteem all my Friends less than nothing And I will have good hope of my enemies I have put in hazard for him both Fame and Conscience I will for his sake renounce the World I will die to set him forward What remaineth to give proof of my Conscience In his hands and in his full power I put my Son my Honour and my Life My Country my Subjects my Soul all subdued To him and has none other will For my scope which without deceit I will follow in spite of all Envie That may ensue for I have no other desire But to make him perceive my faithfulness For storm or fair weather that may come Never will it change Dwelling or Place Shortly I shall give of my truth such proof That he shall know my Constancy without fiction Not by my Weeping or feigued Obedience As other have done but by other experience She for her Honour oweth you Obedience I in obeying you may receive Dishonour Not being to my Displensure your Wife as she And yet in this point she shall have no Preheminence For it is no little Honour to be Mistris of your Goods And I for loving of you may receive blame And I will not be overcome by her in loyal Observance She has no apprehension of your Evil I fear so all appearing evil that I can have no rest She had your acquaintance by consent of her Friends I against all their Will have born you Affection And not the less my Heart you doubt of my Constancy And of her Faithfulness you have firm assurance By you my Heart and by your alliance She hath restored her House unto Honour By you she is become to that Greatness Of which her Friends had never assurance Of you my Wealth she got the Acquaintance And hath conquered the same time your Heart By you she hath Pleasure and good luck And by you hath received Honour and Reverence And hath not lost but the enjoying Of one unpleasant Fool which she loved dearly Then I moan her not to love ardently Him that hath none in Wit in Manhood In Beauty in Bounty in Truth nor in Constancy Any second I live in the belief When you loved her she used coldness If you suffer for her love passion That cometh of too great Affection of life Her Sadness shews the Dolour of her Heart Taking no pleasure of your vehement Burning In her cloathing she shews unfeignedly That she had no fear that Imperfection Could deface her out of that true heart I did not see in her the Fear of your Death That was worthy of such a Husband and Lord. Shortly she hath of you all her Wealth And hath never weighed nor esteemed On so great hap but since it was not hers And now she saith that she loveth him so well And now she beginneth to see That she was of very evil Iudgment To esteem the Love of such a Lover And would fain deceive my Love. By Writings and painted Learning Which not the less did not breed in her brain But borrowed from some feat Author To feign one Story and have none And for all that her painted Words Her Tears her Plaints full of dissimulation And her high Cries and Lamentations Hath won that Point that you keep in store Her Letters and Writings to which you give trust Yea and lovest and believest her more than me You believe her alas I perceive it too well And callest in doubt my firm Constancy O mine only Wealth and mine only Hope And I cannot assure you of my truth I see that you esteem me light And be no way assured of me And doest suspect my Heart without any appearing cause Discrediting me wrongfully You do not know the Love I bear to you You suspect that other Love transporteth me You think my Words be but wind You paint my very Heart as it were of wax You imagine me a Woman without Iudgment And all that increaseth my burning My Love increaseth and more and more will increase So long as I shall live and I shall hold for a great Felicity To have only part in that Heart To which at length my Love shall appear So clearly that he shall never doubt For him I will strive against one World For him I will renounce greatness And shall do so much that he shall know That I have no Wealth Hap nor Contentation But to obey and serve him truly For him I attend all good Fortune For him I will conserve Health and Life For him I desire to ensue Courage And he shall ever find me unchangeable For him also I powred out many Tears First when he made himself Possessor of this Body Of the which then he had not the Heart After he did give me one other hard Charge When he bled of his Blood great quantity Through the great Sorrow of the which came to me that dolour That almost carried away my Life and the Fear To lose the only Strength that armed me For him since I have despised Honour The thing only that bringeth Felicity For him I have hazarded Greatness and Conscience For him I have forsaken all Kindred and Friends And set aside all other Respects Shortly I seek the Alliance of you only Of you I say the only upholder of my Life I only seek to be assured Yea and dare presume so much of my self To win you in syite of all Envie For that is the only Desire of your dear love To serve and love you truly And to esteem all this Hap less than nothing And to follow your Will with mine You shall know with Obedience Not forgetting the Knowledge of my loyal Duty The which I shall study to the end that I may ever please you Loving nothing but you in the Subjection Of whom I will without any fiction Live and die and this I consent My Heart my Blood my Soul my Care Alas you had promised that I should have that Pleasure To devise with you at leisure All the Night where I lie and languish here My Heart being overset with extreme Fear Seeing absent the Summ of my desire Fear of forgetting sometime taketh me And other Times I fear that loving Heart Be not hardened against me By some saying of some wicked Reporter Other Times I fear some Adventure That by the way should turn back my Love By
foreign Perswasions may not lett me from consenting to that that you hope your Service shall make you one day to attain and to be short to make your self sure of the Lords and free to Marry and that you are constrained for your surety and to be able to serve me faithfully to use an humble Request joyned to an importune Action And to be short excuse your self and perswade them the most you can that you are constrained to make pursuit against your Enemies You shall say enough if the Matter or Ground do like you and many fair words to Ledinton If you like not the Deed send me word and leave not the blame of all unto me Another Letter to Bothwell of the Practice for her Ravishment and to advise him to be strange to do it MOnsieur depuis ma lettre escrit vostre beau frere qui fust est venu à moy fort triste m' à demandé mon counseil de ce qu' il feroit apres demain c. MY Lord since my Letter written your Brother-in-law that was came to me very sad and both asked me my counsel what he should do after to morrow because there be many Folks here and among others the Earl of Southerland who would rather die considering the good they have so lately received of me than suffer me to be carried away they conducting me and that he feared there should some trouble happen of it of the other side that it should be said that he were unthankful to have betrayed me I told him that he should have resolved with you upon all that and that he should avoid if he could those that were most mistrusted He hath resolved to write thereof to you of my opinion for he hath abashed me to see him so unresolved at the râ—ed I assure my self he will play the part of an honest Man. But I have thought good to advertise you of the fear he hath that he should be charged and accused of Treason to the end that without mistrusting him you may be the more circumspect and that you may have the more power For we had yesterday more than three hundred Horse of Kis and of Leniston For the Honor of God be accompanied rather with more than less for that is the principal of my Care. I go to write my dispatch and pray God to send us an happy interview shortly I write in haste to the end you may be advised in time Of the Bills of Proclamation and Combat set up by Bothwell and the Answers IMmediately after the Death of the King who was Murthered and his House blown up with Gun-powder the Ninth Day of February in the Night 1567. Proclamation was made That whosoever could bewray the cruel Murtherers of the King should have two thousand Pounds Unto the which Proclamation reply was made and set up privily upon the Tol-Booth Door of Edinburgh the Sixteenth of February in this manner BEcause Proclamation is made That whosoever will reveal the Murtherers of the King shall have two thousand Pounds I who have made inquisition by them that were the doers thereof affirm that the Committers of it were the Earl Bothwell Master Iames Balfoure the Parson of Flisk Mr. David Chambers Black Mr. Iohn Spence who was principal deviser of the Murther and the Queen assenting thereto through the perswasion of the Earl Bothwell and the Witchcraft of the Lady Bucklough UPon this new Proclamation was made the same Day desiring the setter up of the said Bill to come and avow and subscribe the same and he should have the Sum promised in the first Proclamation and further according to his Ability and sight of the Queen and her Counsel The answer thereunto was set up in the place aforesaid the morrow after being the Nineteenth of the same Month. FOrasmuch as Proclamation hath been made since the setting up of my first Letter desiring me to subscribe and avow the same for answer I desire the Money to be consigned into an evenly Man's hand and I shall appear on Sunday next with some four with me and subscribe my first Letter and abide thereat And further I desire that Senior Francis Bastian and Ioseph the Queens Goldsmith be staid and I shall declare what every Man did in particular with their Complices To which Bill no Answer was made THE Thirteenth Day of April the Earl Bothwell coming to the Sessions at Edenburgh with an Ensign displaid and the Streets full of armed Men of his Faction was arraigned for Murther of the King and acquit of the same by a perjured Jury whereupon he set up a Challenge to fight hand to hand with any Man being no Person defamed that would avow the matter Hereunto answer was made by another Bill set up in the same place anon after That forasmuch as the said Earl Bothwell had set up a Writing subscribed with his own hand whereby he did Challenge any Man not defamed that would or durst say he was guilty of the King's Death and therewithal did give the Lye in his Throat to him that would avouch the Quarrel a Gentleman and a Man of good Fame did by those Presents accept the offer and offers and would prove by the Law of Arms that he was the chief Author of that foul and horrible Murther albeit an inquest for fear of Death had slightly quit him And because the King of France and the Queen of England had by their Ambassadors desired that Tryal and Punishment might be had for the same he most heartily therefore craved of their Majesties that they would desire of the Queen his Sovereign that by her Consent they might appoint their day and place within the Dominions for the tryal thereof according to the Law of Arms in their presences or in their Deputies Which day and place he promised by the faith of a Gentleman to appear at and to his devoir provided always that their Majesties by open Proclamation shall give assurance to him and to his company to pass and repass through their Countries without hurt or impediment What just cause he had to desire the King of France and the Queen of England to be Judges in the Case he remitted to the Judgment of the Readers and the hearers warning by those presents the rest of the murtherers to prepare themselves for they should have the like offer mad eunto them and their names given in writing that they might be known unto all men The Confession of John Habroun young Talla Dagleish and Pourie upon whom was justice executed the third of January the year of God 1567. JOhn Bowton confessed that nine was at the deed doing my Lord Bothwell the Lord of Ormiston Hob Ormiston himself Talla Daglish Vilson Pourie and French Paris and that he saw no more nor knew of no other companies Item he knows no other but that that he was blown in the Air for he was handled with no mens hands as he saw and if it was it was with
others and not with them Item as touching Sir Iames Balfour he saw not his Subscription but I warrant you he was the principal Counsellour and deviser Item he said I confess that it is the very providence of God that has brought me to his Judgment for I am led to it as an horse to the stall for I had ships provided to flie but could not escape Item he said let no man do evil for counsel of great men or their Masters thinking they shall save them for surely I thought that night that the deed was done that although knowledge should be got no man durst have said it was evil done seeing the hand writ and acknowledging the Queens mind thereto Item Speaking of the Queen in the Tol-booth he said God make all well but the longer dirt is hidden it is the stronger Who Lives our Deaths will be thought no news Item In the Conclusion he confessed he was one of the principal doers of the Death and therefore is justly worthy of Death but he was assured of the Mercy of God who called him to repentance ITem Talla confessed ut supra agreeing in all Points as concerning the Persons number and blowing up into the Air. Item He affirmed that in Seton my Lord Bothwell called on him and said What thought you when you saw him blown in the Air Who answered Alas my Lord why speak you that for when ever I hear such a thing the words wound me to death as they ought to do you Item That same time he saw Sir Iames Balfour put in his own name and his Brother 's unto my Lord Bothwel's Remission Item He knew of the Deed doing three or four days ere it was done or thereabout Item He said after that I came to the Court I left the reading of God's Word and embraced Vanity and therefore has God justly brought this on me Wherefore let all Men shun evil Company and to trust not in Men for ready are we to embrace evil as ready as Tinder to receive fire And further in the Tol-booth he required Iohn Brand Minister of the Congregation to pass to my Lord Lindsey and say My Lord heartily I forgive your Lordship and also my Lord Regent and all others but specially them that betrayed me to you for I know if you could have saved me you would desiring as ye will answer before God at the later Day to do your diligence to bring the rest who were the beginners of this Work to Justice as ye have done to me for ye know it was not begun in my head but yet he praises God that his Justice has begun at me by the which he has called me to repentance ITem Dagleish said as God shall be my Judge I knew nothing of the King's Death before it was done for my Lord Bothwell going to his Bed after the taking off of his Hose which was stocked with Velvet French Paris came and spake with him and after that he tarried on me for other Hoseâ— and Cloaths and his riding Cloak and Sword which I gave him and after that came up to the Gate to the Lord of Ormiston's Lodging and tarried for him and thereafter that he passed to a Place beside the Black Friars and came to the slope of the Dike where he bid me stand still and as God shall be my Judge I knew nothing while I heard the Blast of Powder and after this he came home lay down in his Bed while Mr. George Hacket came and knocked at the Door and if I die for this the which God Judge me if I knew more what shall be done to the Devisers Counsellers Subscribers and Fortifiers of it FINIS The Queen offereth to be Bawd to her own Husband Cousin Germans Item to the Duke of Norfolk c. This bearer will tell you somwhat upon this Huntley Bothwel's own Wife A Head. The Queens Heart Another wife If this be not true spere at Gilbert Bawfoord