United States or Papua New Guinea ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The Parliamentary Committee, ‘The Lords of the Articles,’ previously sceptical, were convinced by the five letters, the evidence to handwriting, the energy of the Earl of Dunbar, and the eloquence of the King’s Advocate. Logan’s children were all forfeited, and Dunbar saved the money which he owed to Logan’s estate.
On the other hand, as I chanced to notice that genuine letters of Logan’s exist at Hatfield, I was enabled, by the kindness of the Marquis of Salisbury, and of Sir Stair Agnew, to have both the Hatfield Logan letters, and the alleged Logan letters produced in 1609, photographed and compared, at Hatfield and at the General Register House in Edinburgh.
On July 5, 1608, Sprot, in prison, wrote, in his own ordinary hand, the tale of how he knew of Logan’s guilt: the letter was conveyed to the Earl of Dunbar, who, with Dunfermline, governed Scotland, under the absent King.
It is very important, we must freely admit, as an argument against the theory of carrying James to Logan’s impregnable keep of Fastcastle, that only one question, in our papers, is asked as to the provisioning of Fastcastle, and that merely as to the supply of drink! That was commonly regarded as a harmless constitutional practice, not justifying the slaughter of the Ruthvens.
Bower appealed to Logan; it was Logan’s fault, not his. ‘One of two things,’ said Bower, ‘must make you sell your lands; either you think your children are bastards, or you have planned some treason.’ The children were not those of Lady Restalrig, but by former marriages.
I do not feel assured that Sprot really maintained the genuineness of the handwriting of Letter IV. His remark that he kept Logan’s letter only till he forged others on it, as a model, certainly implies that he did not keep it after he had done his forgeries, and therefore that our Letter IV is, confessedly, not Logan’s original. Certainly it is not. This can only be denied by ignorance.
Cecil had, of course, by this time made peace and alliance with James, who was on the point of ascending the English throne, and he gave up Francis. Since 1592, Mowbray had been corresponding with Logan’s friend, Archibald Douglas, and offering his services to Cecil. To Cecil, in September 1600, he was again applying, regarding Elizabeth as his debtor.
But this jaunt could not be part of the Gowrie plot, and probably occurred after its failure. Later, Sprot gave a different version of Logan’s conduct immediately before and after Gowrie’s death. What was the ‘cause’ for which Sprot forged? It was a purpose to blackmail, not Logan, but Logan’s heirs or executors, one of whom was Lord Home.
These letters were declared, by several honourable witnesses, to be in Logan’s very unusual handwriting and orthography: they were compared with many genuine letters of his, and no difference was found.
There were strong resemblances between Logan’s letter, quoted but not produced, in 1608, and a letter of Logan’s produced, and attested to be in his handwriting, in 1609. But there were also remarkable variations.
Word Of The Day