t was by far the most important.)

[Picture: Hand of Logan as forged by Sprot]

After burning Clerk's and Ruthven's letters, Logan dictated to Sprot a
letter to John Baillie of Littlegill, informing him of the fact. Bower
rode off with the letter, and Logan bade Sprot be silent about all these
things, for he had learned, from Bower, that Sprot knew a good deal.
Here the amateur of the art of fiction asks, why did Sprot drag in Mr.
John Baillie of Littlegill? If Logan, as Sprot swore, informed Baillie
about the burned letters, then Baillie had a guilty knowledge of the
conspiracy. Poor Baillie was instantly 'put in ward' under the charge of
the Earl of Dunfermline. But, on the day after Sprot was hanged, namely
on August 13, Baillie was set free, on bail of 10,000 marks to appear
before the Privy Council if called upon. Three of Sprot's other victims,
Maul, Crockett, and William Galloway, were set free on their personal
recognisances, but Mossman and Matthew Logan were kept in prison, and
Chirnside was not out of danger of the law for several years, as we learn
from the Privy Council Register. Nothing was ever proved against any of
these men. After the posthumous trial of Logan (June 1609) the King bade
the Council discharge John Baillie from his bail, 'as we rest now fully
persuaded that there was no just cause of imputation against the said
John.' So the Register of the Privy Council informs us. {203} Thus, if
Sprot told the truth about all these men, no corroborative facts were
discovered, while the only proofs of his charges against Logan were the
papers which, with one exception, he confessed to be forgeries, executed
by himself, for purposes of extortion.

To go on with his confessions: The Christmas of 1602 arrived, and 'The
Laird keepit ane great Yule at Gunnisgreen.' On the third day of the
feast, Logan openly said to Bower, at table, 'I shall sleep better this
night than that night when I sent you for the letters' (in November),
'for now I am sure that none of these matters will ever come to further
light, if you be true.' Bower answered, 'I protest before God I shall be
counted the most damnable traitor in the world, if any man on earth know,
for I have buried them.'

After supper, Bower and Logan called Sprot out on to the open hill-side.
Logan said that Bower confessed to having shown Sprot a letter of
Gowrie's. What, he asked, did Sprot think of the matter? Sprot, with
protest