not read, Sprot helped him to look for the letter, found it,
and kept it '_till_ he framed three new letters upon it,' after which he
does not say what he did with it.

Here Sprot cited, from memory, but not accurately, more of Letter IV.
The existence of such errors is not remarkable. Sprot again swore to the
truth of all his depositions since July 5. But if _this_ story is true,
how can it be true that Logan was at ease in his mind, after burning the
letter from Alexander Ruthven, and another from Father Andrew Clerk,
Jesuit, as Sprot previously swore? There was still Letter IV, lost,
unburned, a haunting fear. It may be suggested that Sprot only kept this
letter '_till_' he had made his forgeries on its model, and then, in a
later search, pretended to find and returned it, having first copied it
out in Logan's hand; that copy being our Letter IV. Sprot first would
make a copy, in his ordinary hand, of the letter, then restore the
original, and, after Logan's death, copy his copy, in imitation of
Logan's hand, and frame I, III, V, and the torn letter on his copy of IV.
Finally, Sprot said that '_he believes_ this letter is in his chest among
his writings, because he left it there when he was taken by Watty Doig
and deposes that it is closed and folded within a piece of paper.' Sprot
said this on August 10. On August 12 he was hanged. Now was this
letter, on which he forged three others, found 'in his kist,' before his
death? That it was so found, we have direct evidence, though not from
the best of sources.

In the year 1713, an aged nobleman, Lord Cromarty, published a defence of
the King's conduct in the Gowrie affair. Lord Cromarty, in 1713, was
aged eighty-three. Born about 1630, he remembered the beginnings of the
Civil War, and says that the Covenanters, about 1640-1645, made great
political capital out of King James's alleged guilt in the slaughter of
the Ruthvens. Later, Lord Cromarty occupied, in the Restoration, the
highest judicial offices, and, as Clerk Registrar, had access to public
documents. He was an old courtier, he may have been forgetful, he may
have been unscrupulous, but, as to the letter in Sprot's kist, he writes
'the letter was found there by the Sheriff Depute, who was ordered by Sir
William Hart, Lord Justice of Scotland, to seize the said chest, and make
search for this letter, which he found, and delivered to the King's
Advocate, Sir Thomas Hamilton.' {224}

Now this Sir Tho