ere 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 noblemen 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
to