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CHAP.
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"disant que la Royne lui donneroit des lettres pour les luy porter"." The heavy purse which he received and delivered to his master, was naturally introduced as the first circumstance of his entry into the queen's service; and on his return with the letters from Glasgow, he proceeds to explain what share Lethington had in recommending, and Balfour in preparing, the Kirk of Field for the reception of the king. The historical fact has not hitherto been observed, that it was in consequence of this information alone, that Balfour and Lethington were both accused and arrested, Murray (September 3, 1569,) at the instigation of Lennox, as accessary to the murder; but the former escaped, and the latter was preserved by the queen's friends assembling in arms for his rescue, which compelled the regent to adjourn his trial. The explanation of the letters has already been anticipated; and when interrogated what he knew of the design, in the interval between the arrival of the king at Edinburgh, and the perpetration of the murder, Paris referred to his former Confession, with this addition: that Bothwell, on the first proposal of the enterprise, forbade him to place the queen's bed directly under the king's, where the powder was to

47 See Appendix, No. XXVII. Whitaker, who had evidently read the passage, misunderstood lequel as relative to Paris, instead of Bothwell, ii. 315.

48 See Appendix, No. XXVIII,

VII.

be laid; and as he placed it there, the queen, who CHAP. slept for the first time that same night, at the Kirk of Field, observed "sot que tu es, je ne veux pas "que mon lit soit en ce endroit la," and actually made him remove the bed. From these words perceiving that she was apprised of the design, he informed her that he was ordered by Bothwell to bring him the keys of her chamber, "et qu'il a "envie d'y faire quelque chose, c'est de faire sau"ter le Roy en l'air par pouldre qu'il y fera mettre;" (an explanation apparently addressed to his examiner) to which she replied, "ne me parle "poynt de cela ceste heurecy, ce dict elle, fais en

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ce qu'on voudras." When interrogated whether she conversed any farther on the same subject that night, he declared that when she went to bed she did not sleep all night, but that she wrote and sent a letter to Bothwell: That on Friday morning he returned with an answer from Bothwell that he would not sleep till he had finished his enterprise: That the queen was still in bed, and while she was dressing he took the two keys of her chamber to Bothwell, who compared them with other false keys and returned them again: That during her absence, Beton, the usher, required the keys to let the queen into the garden, and on his return she demanded aloud why he had carried the keys away: That when he asked her apart why she had challenged him publicly, when she knew for what purpose they

CHAP.

VII.

Objections to the se

claration.

were taken?" Ha, ce dict-elle, Paris, c'est tout "ung: ne te soucie, ne te soucie;" and that as far as he can remember, she slept again upon Friday night at the Kirk of Field; and again sent him with letters to Bothwell.

The objections to these facts are numerous at cond de- least, if not always just. That Paris, when uncertain in his Confession, whether the enterprise was first proposed by Bothwell upon Wednesday or on Thursday, should recollect distinctly on his examination, that the next day was Friday: That he should be employed in dressing or putting the queen's bed in order: That he should be admitted into her chamber when in bed at midnight, or suffered to attend in the morning when she rose and dressed; that Bothwell should promise not to sleep for three nights, till the murder was accomplished; are rejected as circumstances utterly improbable, or at least as inconsistent with all female decorum 49. But the best confirmation of other evidence is the objection itself; that the witness was conducted insensibly, by a train of circumstances, to the precise date which he was unable to recollect at first. If uncertain whether the design was communicated on Wednesday or on Thursday, he remembered distinctly, in his first declaration, that he had been ordered upon that occasion to bring the keys, and had returned

40

Keith, 366. Tytler, i. 312. Whitaker, iii. 267, n.

to Bothwell on Friday morning; in the second declaration he recollected, that the queen slept that same night on which the murder was first proposed, at the Kirk of Field. The intermediate circumstances which he wished to conceal, that she made him remove the bed that night, and sent him at midnight with letters to Bothwell, to whom, on his return to her apartment upon Friday morning, he carried the keys, conduct us to the date of which he was uncertain; that the queen lodged on Thursday for the first time at the Kirk of Field, when Bothwell first communicated the design to Paris, on the same day that it had been imparted to Hepburn. Nelson imagined that she slept there upon Wednesday night; but whether he or Paris has mistaken the day, the first design was to assassinate Darnley in the fields, and the second was to blow up the house upon Saturday night. Bothwell, therefore, if the enterprise referred to the murder, might well promise before the time was fixed, not to sleep till it was accomplished; and in the queen's letter on Friday, the expression, "gif it be not that I fear ye are in sleeping," seems to refer to the same words. That Paris was employed to dress, or to put the queen's bed in order, proceeds from a misapprehension of the French phrase, dresser un lit, which her apologisers have mistaken for fair un lit, and have ludicrously imagined that her chamberlain, " qui

CHAP.

VII.

CHAP.

VII.

voulu dresser le lict de la Royne en sa chambre," was employed in making, instead of setting up the queen's bed 50. "Et comme elle s'abilloit le dit "Paris prend le deux clefs de la chambre et les

51

luy apporte," implies, not that she rose and dressed in his presence, but that he went with the keys to Bothwell while the queen was dressing, after which she wanted to pass into the garden, before his return 5. The great source of historical error, is to estimate the facts or customs of a former period by those of our own. Hence the apologists for Mary, who ascribe to their heroine all the sentimental delicacy of modern times, reject whatsoever appears repugnant to that ideal perfection, which is the mere creature of their own romance. Chatellet's familiarity in her cabinet, when "she wald lye on his

50 A very decent office truly, says Tytler, (i. 312,) who, in translating the passage, has adopted Keith's objection, that he was employed in making the queen's bed. Keith, 366.

51 As Beton missed the keys, when the queen, imagining the back door left open, had occasion to pass into the garden, she questioned Paris aloud on his return; evidently to remove all suspicion from herself. From this incident the reader will observe, that Beton, to whom, as usher of the queen's chamber door, the custody of the keys belonged, and without whose connivance the murder could not well be perpetrated, obtained upon Sunday a grant of the vicarage of Dunlop, and according to Ormiston's Confession, accompanied Bothwell to the Blackfriar's gate when the powder arrived.

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