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VII.

facts and particularities which the most dexterous CHAP. forger could not have easily assembled and connected together with any appearance of probability; and with circumstances which could have occurred only to one of Paris's character and rank in life". He endeavours at once to conceal the queen's guilt, and to represent his own share in the murder as accidental or compulsive. On Wednesday or Thursday, when the murder was first proposed, he attempted to dissuade Bothwell from the design as dangerous; but the latter replied, "Comment sera ce! car j'ay, dis a, Leddington, qui est estyme l'ung des meilleurs es"pricts de ce paiscy, et qui est l'entrepreneur de "tout cecy; en apres j'ay Mons'. d'Argyle, mon "frere Monsieur de Hontlye, Mons". de Mor"ton, Ruthen, et Lindsay. Les trois la une fois ne me fauldront jamais, car j'ay parle pour leur grace, et ay tous les signes de ceulx cy que je t'ay nommes, et ausy avons envie de la faire "dernierement que nous fumes a Craigmillar." After some flattering compliments to Murray's former administration", Paris next demands, "Robertson, ii. 341.

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45 See Appendix, No. XXVI. Goodall (i. 145.) wonders how Paris knew any thing of Murray's administration from 1562 to 1565, while Bothwell was in France. From the original Confession, which Goodall never saw, it appears that Paris had quitted Bothwell's service in England, and returned to Scotland, where, as Buchanan intimates, he probably remained in Lord Seton's service till Bothwell's recall.

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CHAP.

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"Quelle parte cestuy la prend? Ce dict-il, il ne se "veult point meler. Monsieur, ce di-je, il est sage. Adonc Monsieur de Boduel restorne sa "teste vers moy, et me deist, Monsieur de Morra! "Monsieur de Morra! il ne veult ne ayder ne "nuire; mais c'est tout ung: Bien, bien Mon"sieur, ce di-je, il ne le faicte sans cause, et vous "le voyres." Bothwell's answer, that Murray would neither help nor hurt them, is in the same strain with Lethington's at Craigmillar, that he would look through his fingers saying nothing thereto; but an allusion to that conference was the last circumstance which Murray would have introduced, if the Confession had been forged. How desirous soever to criminate Lethington by a forged confession, Murray never would have implicated his three principal adherents, in a manner seeming at first to imply, that they had signed the bond for the murder of Darnley; much less would he have involved himself in the suspicion of a tacit connivance at his death. Bothwell, on the contrary, relied naturally on the assistance of Morton, Ruthven, and Lindsay; but the signatures which he procured, as explained by the context, are limited to Lethington, Argyle and Huntley, as they would have done it the last time that they were at Craigmillar, before Morton and his associates were permitted to return. Whether or no the design was prevented then, by Murray's presence, he denied, in his answer to the protes

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tation transmitted to Huntley, that any unlawful CHAP. purpose was held in his audience; and he certainly would have introduced no intimation of his own connivance, upon which Lethington and Bothwell, on the first covert proposal of the murder at Craigmillar, appear to have both relied. From an impartial examination of his conduct, we must conclude, that the conspiracy of which he was then ignorant, could not have escaped his observation afterwards, when he left town on the eve of the murder, in order to avoid all apparent concern in a crime which he could not prevent. When Paris heard of his departure, the idea was

46 For the same reason, the real cause of the quarrel betwixt Darnley and Lord Robert Stuart, was not explained either at the conferences, or in Buchanan's Detection. When Darnley was informed by Lord Robert of the design against his life, which he told again to the queen, it was impossible. for Murray, who was present at their quarrel, upon Saturday morning, to have remained ignorant of the cause; and in all probability, the discovery induced him to leave town so abruptly on Sunday. But the secret cause of the quarrel was concealed, as it might have betrayed, upon his part, a presentiment or rather a foreknowledge of the murder, which, after the warning so ineffectually given to Darnley, it was impossible to prevent. Upon this account the words ascribed to Murray, as he rode through Fife, upon Sunday evening, "This night, ere morning, the Lord Darnley shall lose his life," are extremely probable, and at the same time perfectly consistent with his innocence; though it is very evident, from Herreis's silence at the conferences, that the latter never ventured to accuse him, at his own table, of a foreknowledge of the crime. Supra vol. i. pp. 194. 307. n.

CHAP. irresistible.
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Moy entendant ceste parole (qui "Monsieur de Morray venoit prendre son conge "de la Royne, pour aller veoyr madame sa femme) j'aperseu incontinent, qu'il le faisoit

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pour se destorner de se faict meschant; la des"sus je m'en allois me pormener Lastarik, et "m'en vois subvenir des paroles que j'avoys "dictes du dict Sie'. de Morray a Monsieur de 66 Bodvel, et aussi ce qu'il m'en avoit respondu : "a ceste heur la je dis en moy mesme, O! Mon"sieur de Morray, tu es homme de bien, pleust a "Dieu que tu sceaus mon cœur." Such an artful intermixture of truth and flattery was extremely natural to one in Paris's situation; but on the supposition of forgery, Murray and Morton must have been industrious to insert every circumstance which it was their interest to conceal. In the circumstances, and in the secret steps of the murder, the Confession coincides minutely with the former Depositions; but Paris, who studied to suppress the queen's concern in the deed, has inadvertently betrayed a single circumstance decisive of her guilt. On her return to the abbey upon Saturday, Margaret Carwood, her confidential servant, desired Paris to bring the coverlet of the queen's bed, which was probably valuable, from the Kirk of Field; and when she supped upon Sunday with the Bishop of Argyle, she asked him herself if the coverlet was removed.

CHAP.

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His exa

and second

8. Paris, in consequence of his Confession, was examined next day, and as his Declaration is delivered in the same strain of arch simplicity, if the one be genuine, the other cannot be less au-declaration thentic. Nothing in fact can be more natural or regular, than the whole procedure. As the first is a voluntary confession, delivered without interrogation or constraint, so the second is a declaration in answer to certain interrogatories, or those circumstances which at first he had endeavoured to conceal. To the first interrogatory, quand premierment il entra en credit avec la Royne, he replied, that it was at Callender, on her journey to Glasgow, when she gave him a purse of three or four hundred crowns to carry to Bothwell; which has furnished those who are ignorant of the language, or inattentive to the context, with a new objection; that she should give him a purse to carry to Glasgow, and to return with it afterwards to Bothwell at Edinburgh, to whom she might have delivered it herself on his departure from Callender. The purse, however, was delivered to Bothwell on the road, before his return to Edinburgh. "Qu'alors elle luy baylla une bourse "la ou il avoit environs 3 ou 4 cens escus, pour "la porter a Monsieur Boduel, lequel apres avoir "receu la dicte bourse, sur le chemin entre Callen"dar et Glasgow, luy dict que le dict Paris s'en "allast avec la Royne, et qu'il se tint pres d'elle, "et qu'il regardast bien a ce qu'elle feroit, luy

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