James VI and the Gowrie mystery . ates ofoccurrences all through a month now distant byeight years ? There were no daily newspapers, noready means of ascertaining a date. Queen Marysaccusers, in their chronological account of her move-ments about the time of Darnleys death, are oftenout in their dates. In legal documents of the periodthe date of the day of the month of an event is oftenleft blank. This occurs in the confirmation ofLogans own will. He died — July, 1606. Whenlawyers with plenty of leisure for inquiry were thusat a loss for dates of days of the month (having sincethe Reformation
James VI and the Gowrie mystery . ates ofoccurrences all through a month now distant byeight years ? There were no daily newspapers, noready means of ascertaining a date. Queen Marysaccusers, in their chronological account of her move-ments about the time of Darnleys death, are oftenout in their dates. In legal documents of the periodthe date of the day of the month of an event is oftenleft blank. This occurs in the confirmation ofLogans own will. He died — July, 1606. Whenlawyers with plenty of leisure for inquiry were thusat a loss for dates of days of the month (having sincethe Reformation no Saints days to go by), Sprot, inprison, might easily go wrong in his chronology. In any case, taking Letter IV provisionally asgenuine in substance, we note that, on July 29, Logandid not yet know the date fixed for Gowries enter-prise. He suggested the beginning of harvest, and,by August 5, harvest had begun. One of the Perthwitnesses was reaping in the Morton haugh, whenhe heard the town bell call the citizens to arms. But. THE LAIRD AND THE NOTAEY 193 Gowrie must have acted in great haste, Logan notknowing, till, say, August 2 or 3, the date of a plotthat exploded on August 5. Gowrie may have thought, as Lord Maxwell saidwhen arranging his escape from Edinburgh Castle,Sic interprysis are nocht effectuat with delibera-tionis and advisments, bot with suddane resolu-tionis. It is very important, we must freely admit, asan argument against the theory of carrying James toLogans impregnable keep of Fastcastle, that onlyone question, in our papers, is asked as to theprovisioning of Fastcastle, and that merely as to thesupply of drink! Possibly this had been ascer-tained in Sprots earlier and unrecorded examinations(April 19-July 5). One poor hogshead of wine (atrifle to Logan) had been sent in that summer ;so Matthew Logan deponed. As Logan had oftenused Fastcastle before, for treasonable purposes,he was not (it may be supposed) likely to leave itwithout provisions. Moreover t
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