Part 11 (1/2)

Bothwell was a Catholic; Gowrie, he declared, was another; Logan was a trafficker with Jesuits, and an 'idolater' in the matter of 'keeping great Yules.' Logan, however, if Letter IV is genuine, in substance, wrote that he 'utterly dissented' from Gowrie's opinion. He would not try his brother's, Home's, mind in the matter, or 'consent that he ever should be counsellor thereto, for, in good faith, he will never help his friend, nor harm his foe.'

Such being the relations (if we accept Letter IV as in substance genuine) between Gowrie, Home, and Logan, we can appreciate Sprot's anecdote, now to be given, concerning Lady Home. Logan, according to Sprot, said to him, in Edinburgh, early in 1602, 'Thou rememberest what my Lady Home said to me, when she would not suffer my lord to subscribe my contract for Fentoun, because I would not allow two thousand marks to be kept out of the security, and take her word for them? She said to me, _which was a great knell to my heart_, that since her coming to the town, she knew that I had been in some dealing with the Earl of Gowrie about Dirleton.'

Now Dirleton, according to Sprot, was to have been Logan's payment from Gowrie, for his aid in the plot.

Logan then asked Sprot if he had blabbed to Lady Home, but Sprot replied that 'he had never spoken to her Ladys.h.i.+p but that same day, although he had read the contract' (as to Fentoun) 'before him and her in the abbey,'

of Coldingham, probably. Logan then requested Sprot to keep out of Lady Home's sight, lest she should ask questions, '_for I had rather be eirdit quick than either my Lord or she knew anything of it_.'

Now, in Letter II (July 18, 1600), from Logan to Bower, Logan, as we saw, is made to write, 'See that my Lord, my brother, gets no knowledge of our purposes, _for I_ (_sic_) _rather be eirdit quik_.' The phrase recurs in another of the forged letters not produced in court.

It is thus a probable inference that Logan did use this expression to Sprot, in describing the conversation about Lady Home, and that Sprot inserted it into his forged Letter II (Logan to Bower). But, clever as Sprot was, he is scarcely likely to have invented the conversation of Logan with Lady Home, arising out of Logan's attempt to do some business with Lord Home about Fentoun. A difficulty, raised by Lady Home, led up to the lady's allusion to Dirleton, 'which was a great knell to my heart,' said Logan. This is one of the pa.s.sages which indicate a basis of truth in the confessions of Sprot. Again, as Home and Gowrie were in Paris together, while Bothwell was in Brussels, in February 1600, and as Home certainly, and Gowrie conceivably, met Bothwell, it may well have been that Gowrie heard of Logan from Bothwell, the old ally of both, and marked him as a useful hand. Moreover, he could not but have heard of Logan's qualities and his keep, Fastcastle, in the troubles and conspiracies of 15921594. After making these depositions, Sprot attested them, with phrases of awful solemnity, 'were I presently within one hour to die.' He especially insisted that he had written, to Logan's dictation, the letter informing John Baillie of Littlegill that all Gowrie's papers were burned. As we saw, in November 1609, the King deliberately cleared Baillie of all suspicion. There could be no evidence. Bower, the messenger, was dead.

Baillie was now called. He denied on oath that he had ever received the letter from Logan. He had never seen Gowrie, 'except on the day he came first home, and rode up the street of Edinburgh.' Confronted with Baillie, 'Sprot abides by his deposition.'

Willie Crockett was then called. He had been at Logan's 'great Yule' in Gunnisgreen, where Logan, according to Sprot, made the imprudent speeches. Crockett had also been at Dundee with Logan, he said, but it was in the summer of 1603. He did not hear Logan's imprudent speech to Bower, at the Yule supper. As to the weeping of Lady Restalrig, he had often seen her weep, and heard her declare that Logan would ruin his family. He only remembered, as to the Yule supper, a quarrel between Logan and Willie Home.

This was the only examination at which Archbishop Spottiswoode attended.

Neither he nor any of the Lords (as we have said already) signed the record, which is attested only by James Primrose, Clerk of Council, signing at the foot of each page. Had the Lords 'quitted the diet'?

The next examination was held on July 22, Dunfermline, Dunbar, Sir Thomas Hamilton, the President of the Court of Session, and other officials, all laymen, being present. Sprot incidentally remarked that Logan visited London, in 1603, after King James ascended the English throne. Logan appears to have gone merely for pleasure; he had seen London before, in the winter of 1586. On his return he said that he would 'never bestow a groat on such vanities' as the celebration of the King's holiday, August 5, the anniversary of the Gowrie tragedy; adding 'when the King has cut off all the n.o.blemen of the country he will live at ease.' But many citizens disliked the 5th of August holiday as much as Logan did.

[Picture: Handwriting of Sprot]

In the autumn of 1605, Logan again visited London. In Sprot's account of his revels there, and his bad reception, we have either proof of Logan's guilt, if the tale be true, or high testimony to Sprot's powers as an artist in fiction. He says that Matthew Logan accompanied the Laird to town in September 1605, and in November was sent back with letters to Bower. Eight days later, Matthew took Sprot to Coldingham, to meet Bower, and get his answer to the letters. It was a Sunday; these devotees heard sermon, and then dined together at John Corsar's. After dinner Bower took Sprot apart, and showed him two letters. Would Sprot read to him the first few words, that he might know which letter he had to answer? The first letter shown (so Sprot writes on the margin of his recorded deposition) referred to the money owed to Logan, by the Earl of Dunbar, for Gunnisgreen and the lands of Remington. Logan had expected to get the purchase money from Dunbar in London; he never got more than 18,000 out of 33,000 marks. Sprot wrote for Bower the answer to this business letter, and gave it to Matthew Logan to be sent to Logan in London. Matthew, being interrogated, denied that he sent any letter back to Logan, though he owned that Sprot wrote one; and he denied that Sprot and Bower had any conference at all on the occasion. But Sprot had a.s.serted that the conference with Bower occurred after Matthew Logan left them at Corsar's house, where they dined, as Matthew admitted, after sermon. Matthew denied too much.

A curious conference it was. Bower asked Sprot to read to him the other of Logan's two letters, directed to himself. It ran, 'Laird Bower,-I wot not what I should say or think of this world! It is very hard to trust in any man, for apparently there is no constancy or faithfulness. For since I cam here they whom I thought to have been my most entire friends have uttered to me most injurie, and have given me the defiance, and say I am not worthy to live, ”and if the King heard what has moved you to put away all your lands, and _debosch_ yourself, you would not make such merryness, and play the companion in London, as you do so near his Majestie.”'

Logan went on to express his fear that Bower's rash speeches had roused these suspicions of 'the auld misterie ye ken of.' 'G.o.d forgive you, but I have had no rest since these speeches were upcast to me.' Bower was to take great care of this letter, 'for it is within three letters enclosed,' and is confided to Matthew Logan (who travelled by sea) as a trusty man.

Bower was much moved by this melancholy letter, and denied that he had been gossiping. He had twice, before Logan rode south, advised him to be very careful never even to mention the name of Gowrie.

Sprot said that he, too, was uneasy, for, if anything came out, he himself was in evil case. Logan visited France, as well as London, at this time; he returned home in the spring of 1606, but Bower expressed the belief that he would go on to Spain, 'to meet Bothwell and Father Andrew Clerk, and if he come home it will be rather to die in his own country than for any pleasure he has to live.' Bothwell and Father Andrew, of course, were both Catholic intriguers, among whom Bothwell reckoned Logan and Gowrie.

Now the letter to Bower here attributed to Logan, telling of the new 'knell at his heart' when he is rebuked and insulted as he plays the merry companion in London, and near the Court; his touching complaint of the falseness of the world (he himself being certainly the blackest of traitors), with the distress of Bower, do make up a very natural description. The ghost of his guilt haunts Logan, he cannot drown it in a red sea of burgundy: life has lost its flavour; if he returns, it will be with the true Scottish desire to die in his own country, though of his ancient family's lands he has not kept an acre. Pleasant rich Restalrig, strong Fastcastle, jolly Gunnisgreen of the 'great Yules,' all are gone.

Nothing is left.

Surely, if Sprot invented all this, he was a novelist born out of due time. Either he told truth, or, in fiction, he rivalled De Foe.

Matthew Logan, being called, contradicted Sprot, as we have already said.

He himself had seen Bower when he brought him Logan's letter from London, take his son, Valentine, apart, and knew that Valentine read a letter to him. 'It was a meikle letter,' Matthew said, and, if Sprot tell truth, it contained three enclosures. Bower may have stopped his son from reading the melancholy and compromising epistle, and kept it to be read by Sprot. Logan's folly in writing at all was the madness that has ruined so many men and women.

Matthew could not remember having ridden to Edinburgh with Logan in July 1600, just before the Gowrie affair, as Sprot had declared that he did.

We could scarcely expect him to remember that. He could remember nothing at all that was compromising, nothing of Logan's rash speeches. As to the Yule feast at Gunnisgreen, he averred that Lady Restalrig only said, 'The Devil delight in such a feast that makes discord, and makes the house ado'-that is, gives trouble. Asked if wine and beer were stored in Fastcastle, in 1600, he said, as has already been stated, that a hogshead of wine was therein. He himself, he said, had been 'in the west,' at the time of the Gowrie tragedy, and first heard of it at Falkirk.

On August 6, Sprot was interrogated again. Only lay lords were present: there were no clergymen nor lawyers. He denied that he had received any promise of life or reward. He asked to be confronted with Matthew Logan, and reported a conversation between them, held when Lord Dunbar took possession of Gunnisgreen. Matthew then hoped to ride with the Laird to London (1605), but said, 'Alas, Geordie Sprot, what shall we all do now, now nothing is left? I was aye feared for it, for I know the Laird has done some evil turn, and he will not bide in the country, and woe's me therefor.'

Sprot asked what the 'evil turn' was. Matthew answered, 'I know well enough, but, as the proverb goes, ”what lies not in my way breaks not my s.h.i.+ns.”'

Sprot added that, after Bower's death (January 1606), Logan wrote to him from London, not having heard the news of his decease. Lady Restalrig opened the letter and wrote a postscript 'Give this to Laird Bower, for I trow that he be ridden to h.e.l.l, as he ofttimes said to the Laird that he would do.' In Letter IV. Logan tells Gowrie that he believes Bower 'would ride to h.e.l.l's gate to pleasure him.'

Sprot was now asked about two letters. One of these (Logan to Chirnside) is endorsed, 'Production by Niniane Chirnesyde. XIII April 1608.'

Another is Letter V, endorsed 'produced by Ninian Chirnside,' a fact first noted by Mr. Anderson. Yet another is the letter in twelve torn pieces. Logan, in the first of these three letters, requests Chirnside to find a letter which Bower lost in Dunglas. The letter imperils Logan's life and lands. The date is September 23, and purports, falsely, to be written before Logan goes to London (1605). Sprot explained that he forged the letters, that Chirnside might blackmail Logan's executors, and make them forgive him the debts which (as Logan's will proves) he owed to the estate.