either conscience or the vanity of the artist, Sprot now insists on
claiming the letters as his own handiwork. On this point he was
inaccessible to temptation, if temptation was offered. If he lies as to
Letter II having been dictated by Logan, he lies by way of relapse into
the habit of a lifetime, and so on other points. He keeps back all
mention of Letter IV, till the last ember of hope of life is extinct.

It has not been hitherto known, either that Sprot kept back Letter IV
till almost his dying day, or that he then, at last, revealed it. Lord
Cromarty's averment that it was found in Sprot's kist was disbelieved.
It is true, however, and now we ask, why did Sprot keep back Letter IV to
the last, and why, having so long concealed it, did he say where it was,
after all hope of life was over?

The answer can only be conjectural. Some might guess thus: till Letter
IV was confessed to and found, Government had not received from Sprot one
scrap of documentary evidence that could be used against Logan's heirs.
Scoundrel as he was, Sprot could not guess that the Privy Council would
use papers which were confessed forgeries to save Dunbar and Balmerino
from paying some 33,000 marks to Logan's executors. The wretched Sprot
had robbed the orphans on a small scale, but he would not, by producing
the genuine Logan letter, enable the Lords to ruin them utterly. Bad as
he was, the Laird had been kind to Sprot. Therefore he kept back, and by
many a lie concealed, his real pieces of evidence, Letter IV, and I, if I
is genuine. So far he acted on a remnant of natural conscience.

But Sprot, alas, had a religious conscience. He had a soul to be saved.
The preachers had prayed with him. When death was but forty-eight hours
distant, he feared to die with a lie in his mouth. So _now_, at last, he
spoke of Letter IV as his real model. Perhaps he hoped that it would not
be found, and probably it was in some secret drawer or false bottom of
his kist. It was found, and was used, along with the confessed forgeries
(which even Sprot could not have anticipated), to destroy the inheritance
of the children, at Logan's posthumous trial in 1609.

But the obvious reply to this hypothesis is, that Letter IV, by the
evidence of modern experts (evidence unanimous and irresistible), is just
as much forged as all the rest, is just as certainly in Sprot's imitation
of Logan's handwriting. This being so, why did Sprot keep it back so
lo