ar, when the letters, confessedly forged, were
produced as evidence, in 1609, to ruin Logan's innocent child. Did the
preachers think the letters genuine in spite of the confession that they
were forged? We shall see later, in any case, that the _contents_ of the
three letters to the Unknown, and a torn letter, when compared with
Letter IV, demonstrate that Sprot's final confession to having forged
them on the model of IV is true; indeed the fact ought to have been
discovered, on internal evidence, even by critics unaware of his
confessions.

We now pursue Sprot's written deposition of July 5. He gives, as grounds
of his knowledge of Logan's guilt, certain conversations among Logan's
intimates, yeomen or 'bonnet lairds,' or servants, from which he inferred
that Logan was engaged in treason. Again, just before Logan's death in
July 1606, he was delirious, and raved of forfeiture. But Logan had been
engaged in various treasons, so his ravings need not refer to the Gowrie
affair. He had been on Bothwell's enterprises, and had privy dealings
with 'Percy,' probably Thomas Percy, who, in 1602, secretly visited Hume
of Manderston, a kinsman of Logan. That intrigue was certainly connected
merely with James's succession to the English crown. But one of Logan's
retainers, when this affair of Percy was spoken of among them, said,
according to Sprot, that the Laird had been engaged in treason 'nearer
home.'

Sprot then writes that 'about the time of the conspiracy,' Logan, with
Matthew Logan, rode to Dundee, where they enjoyed a three days' drinking
bout, and never had the Laird such a surfeit of wine. But this jaunt
could not be part of the Gowrie plot, and probably occurred after its
failure. Later, Sprot gave a different version of Logan's conduct
immediately before and after Gowrie's death. Once more, after Logan's
death, one Wallace asked Sprot to be silent, if ever he had heard of 'the
Laird's conspiracy.' Sprot ended by confessing contritely that he had
forged all the letters (except Letter IV) 'to the true meaning and
purpose of the letter that Bower let me see,' a passage already quoted,
and a falsehood.

What was the 'cause' for which Sprot forged? It was a purpose to
blackmail, not Logan, but Logan's heirs or executors, one of whom was
Lord Home. If Sprot wanted to get anything out of _them_, he could
terrify them by threatening to show the forged Logan letters, as genuine,
to the Government, so securing