Since this book was written, the author has had an opportunity to read an Apology for the Ruthvens by the late Andrew Bisset. This treatise is apt to escape observation: it is entitled ‘Sir Walter Scott,’ and occupies pp. 172–303 in ‘Essays on Historical Truth,’ long out of print. {0a} On many points Mr. Bisset agreed with Mr. Barbé in his ‘Tragedy of Gowrie House,’ and my replies to Mr. Barbé serve for his predecessor. But Mr. Bisset found no evidence that the King had formed a plot against Gowrie. By a modification of the contemporary conjecture of Sir William Bowes he suggested that a brawl between the King and the Master of Ruthven occurred in the turret, occasioned by an atrocious insult offered to the Master by the King. This hypothesis, for various reasons, does not deserve discussion. Mr. Bisset appeared to attribute the Sprot papers to the combined authorship of the King and Sir Thomas Hamilton: which our new materials disprove. A critic who, like Mr. Bisset, accused the King of poisoning Prince Henry, and many other persons, was not an unprejudiced historian. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION vii I. THE MYSTERY AND THE EVIDENCE 1 II. THE SLAUGHTER OF THE RUTHVENS 11 III. THE KING’S OWN NARRATIVE 35 IV. THE KING’S NARRATIVE. II 55 V. HENDERSON’S NARRATIVE 60 VI. THE STRANGE CASE OF MR. ROBERT OLIPHANT 71 VII. THE CONTEMPORARY RUTHVEN VINDICATION 80 VIII. THE THEORY OF AN ACCIDENTAL BRAWL 94 IX. CONTEMPORARY CLERICAL CRITICISM 99 X. POPULAR CRITICISM OF THE DAY 111 XI. THE KING AND THE RUTHVENS 118 XII. LOGAN OF RESTALRIG 148 XIII. THE SECRETS OF SPROT 168 XIV. THE LAIRD AND THE NOTARY 182 XV. THE FINAL CONFESSIONS OF THE NOTARY 201 XVI. WHAT IS LETTER IV? 232 XVII. INFERENCES AS TO THE CASKET LETTERS 240 _APPENDICES_ A. THE FRONTISPIECE 245 B. THE CONTEMPORARY RUTHVEN VINDICATION 252 C. FIVE LETTERS FORGED BY SPROT, AS FROM LOGAN 257 INDEX 265 ILLUSTRATIONS