Notes drawn forth of the Queen's Letters sent to the Earl Bothwell.
... Item. ... We are coupled with twa fals racis; the devill syndere us, and God mot knit us togidder for ever for the maist faithful cupple that ever he unitit. This is my faith, I will die in it.
... Item. ... Wareit {cursed} mocht this pokishe man be, that causes me haif sa meikill pane, for without hym I wald haif ane far mair plesant subject to discourse upoun. He is not oer meikle spilt, bot he has gottin verray mekill; he has almaist slane me with his braith; it is war nor your unclis, and zeit {yet} I cum na neirar bot sat in ane cheir at the bedfute, and he beand {being} at the uther end thairof.
... Item. ... Send me advertisement quhat I sall do, and quhatsumever sall cum thairof I sall obey you; advys to with yourself. Yf ye can fynd out any mair secreit inventioun be medecein, and the baith in Craigmillar.
... Item. ... "For certaintie he suspectis that thing ye know, and of his lyif: bot as to the last, how sone I speak twa or thrie guid wordis unto hym, he rejois and is out of doubt."
... Item. ... Sie not his quhas fenzeit tearis suld not be sa mekill praysit, nor estemyt, as the trew and faythfull travaillis quhilk I sustene to merit hir place, for obteyning of quhilk, againis my naturall. I betray thame that may impesche me. God forgive me, and God gif you, my onlie luif, the hope and prosperitie that your humble and faythfull luif desyris unto yow, quha hoipis schortlie to be ane uther thing unto yow. {[Letter, ii.] pp. 167-182.}
... Item. ... As to me, howbeit I heir no farther newes from yow. According to my commission, I bring the man with me to Craigmillar upon Munday, quhair he will be all Wednisday. {[Letter i]., pp. 165-6.}
... Item. ... In ane uther lettre, "I pray you, according to your promeis, to discharge your hart to me, utherwayis I will think that my malheure, and the guid composing of thame, that hes not the third part of the faythfull and willing obedience unto yow that I beyre, has wyne, againis my will, that advantage over me quhilk the secund luif of Jason wan; not that I wolde compair yow to ane soe unhappie as he was, nor yit myself to ane soe unpetifull a woman as she...." {[Letter iv.], p. 185.}
COMMISSION REMOVED TO WESTMINSTER
The Conference at Westminster.
[At the beginning of the Westminster Conference, Mary found herself "ever straiter and straiter kept from liberty," and demanded to be allowed to appear in person. Her request and Elizabeth's reply will be found on [pp. 145], [148]. On the 26th November, Murray made his "eik" or additional charge. For the relevant portions of this document, and of the reply of Mary's Commissioners, see [pp. 146-7]. On December 6th, Mary's representatives protested that they would withdraw from the Conference if their mistress's demand were not granted. Cecil declined, on a formal point, to receive the protest. On the 6th, 7th, and 8th, Murray produced his proofs. On the 9th, the protest was accepted, and Mary's Commissioners withdrew. After their retirement further evidence was received. It may be of use to enumerate the documents produced at Westminster:—
PRODUCTIONS AT WESTMINSTER
The Book of Articles.
Acts of Parliament ratifying the proceedings of the insurgent Lords.
Two contracts of marriage, and record of Bothwell's trial and divorce.
Five of the six letters produced at York, three additional letters, and the sonnets ([pp. 162-201]).
Recognition of the Regent's Government by Huntly, Argyll, and Herries ([pp. 154-5]).
Depositions and confessions of Hay, Hepburn, Powrie, Dalgleish, Nelson, and Crawford.
Murray's "Journal or Diary of Events."
The Book of Articles is a document of considerable length. It is a summary of the charges against the Queen of Scots, but contains no important charge which is not to be found elsewhere. The reader is already in possession of its essential allegations. It formed the material for Buchanan's "Detectio," with which it is, at times, almost identical. It is printed, from the Hopetoun MS., in Hosack's "Mary," I. App. B. For the depositions of [Nelson] and [Crawford], see pp. 207-213. The depositions of Hay, Hepburn, Powrie, and Dalgleish do not directly accuse the Queen of the murder, beyond stating that the powder was placed in her room, and they have therefore been omitted. The question of the position of the powder is discussed in Hosack, vol. i. pp. 247-8, and the reader is referred to the authorities there quoted, and to Mr. Hay Fleming's "Mary Queen of Scots," pp. 435-6 (cf. also [pp. 219-220]). The confession of Hepburn (English edition of Buchanan's "Detection") contains the following sentence:—"He said, let no man do evil for counsel of great men ... for surely I thought that night that the deed was done, that although knowledge should be gotten, no man durst have said it was evil done, seeing the handwriting and acknowledging the Queen's mind thereto." No question was put to Dalgleish regarding the casket found in his possession.
A quotation from Murray's "Diary," so far as it bears on the murder, will be found on [pp. 213-215.]]
The Earl of Sussex to Sir William Cecil, October 22, 1568. Lodge: Illustrations of British History.
This matter must at length take end, either by finding the Scotch Queen guilty of the crimes that are objected against her, or by some manner of composition with a show of saving her honour. The first, I think, will hardly be attempted, for two causes, the one, for that if her adverse party accuse her of the murder by producing of her letters, she will deny them, and accuse the most of them of manifest consent to the murder, hardly to be denied; so as, upon the trial on both sides, her proofs will judicially fall best out, as it is thought. The other, for that their young King is of tender and weak years and state of body; and if God should call him, and their Queen were judicially defaced ... Hamilton, upon his death, should succeed; which Murray's faction utterly detest.