talk with a gentleman, was suddenly shot with a gun and slain in
the midst of his own men, to the great discomfort of me and his poor
friends in this country, and never a man either of England or Scotland but
he. Alas! that the mischievous chance should happen for him to be killed
with a shot, and none but him, which is the greatest discomfort that ever
came upon me."[47]

No hint is here given of any suspicion that Ker of Ferniherst was
implicated in the death of this young man. Hence we are surprised to find
that, on the day after this letter was written, Sir John Foster drew up a
statement in which he gives an entirely different complexion to the
incident. He asserts that it was not an accident. "Had it been an
accident," he says, "or sudden breaking by rascals, as there was no such
matter, the gentlemen of Scotland with their drums, fife, shot, and such
as carried the 'ensigne' and 'penseller,' would have tarried with the
warden; so that it appeareth plainly it was a 'pretended matter'
beforehand, for the wardens sitting quietly calling their bills, the
warden of England thinking no harm, the party of Scotland seeing the time
serve for their 'former desire,' suddenly broke, striking up an alarm with
sound of drum and fife, and gave the charge upon us--in which charge the
Lord Russell was cruelly slain with shot, and so divers gentlemen of
Scotland with their footmen and horsemen and whole force, followed and
maintained their chase four miles within the Realm of England, and took
sundry prisoners and horses, and carried them into Scotland, which they
deny to deliver again."[48]

This statement contradicts, in almost every particular, the asseverations
deliberately made in the letter written the day before, and shows that
even a gentleman in Sir John Foster's high position, with a deservedly
great reputation for fair dealing, was capable, when occasion demanded, of
twisting facts, or even inventing them, to suit his own ends, or the
interest of the government he represented. It has been suggested that the
English secretary, knowing that Ferniherst was an intimate friend of
Arran, saw that by laying the blame of Lord Russell's death on the
shoulders of the former, he might thereby procure the disgrace of this
hated minister. Be this as it may, such conflicting assertions, made by
the same person almost at the same time, should lead us to accept with a
modified confidence other statements of a similar kind, as the spiri