d or
surreptitiously returned. When he was examined on August 11, the three
preachers, Galloway, Hall, and Hewatt, and the minister of Duddingston,
Mr. Lumisden, were present. He was entreated not to perjure himself to
the injury of innocent people, dead or alive, 'by making and forging of
lies.' He renewed his protestations of truth, asked Mr. Galloway to pray
for him, wept, and repeated his averments.

On August 12 Sprot was tried and hanged at Edinburgh. He renewed his
protestations from every corner of the scaffold, in the most vigorous
language. Abbot, who was present, declares that he thrice gave a loud
clap with his hands while he swung, as a proof that he adhered in death
to his last words. A similar story is told of Kirkcaldy of Grange, and I
think in other cases. Nothing of the sort is in the first draft of the
official account of his dying behaviour (a draft manifestly drawn up near
the spot), nor in the official account itself.

Much value was set on dying confessions. When the preacher, Robert
Bruce, refused to believe the King's account of the Gowrie tragedy, he
said that one proof would satisfy him. Let Andrew Henderson, the man in
the turret, be hanged. If he persisted in his confession on the
scaffold, Mr. Bruce would believe. The King declined to make this
abominable experiment. In Sprot's case his dying confession did not move
the Kirk party. Calderwood hints that Mr. Galloway 'had the most speech
to Sprot on the scaffold,' and so kept him true to a dying lie. {227a}
He adds that Spottiswoode said to Galloway 'I am afraid this man make us
all ashamed,' that is, by retracting his confessions. Mr. Patrick
answered, 'Let alone, my Lord, I shall warrant him.' {227b} Had Andrew
Henderson swung, constant to his confession, the Presbyterian sceptics
would have found similar reasons for disbelief.

What are _we_ to believe? Did Sprot go wherever he went with a
blasphemous lie in his mouth? A motive for such vehemence of religious
hypocrisy is difficult to find. Conceivably he had promise of benefits
to his family. Conceivably he was an atheist, and 'took God in his own
hand.' Conceivably his artistic temperament induced him to act his lie
well, as he had a lie to act.

Yet all this is not satisfactory.

Let us take the unromantic view of common sense. It is this: Logan was a
restless, disappointed intriguer and debauchee. He sold his lands, some
to acquire a partnership with Lord Wi