Were we disposed to enter still more minutely into an examination of these writings, it would not be difficult to show, as Goodall, Tytler, Whittaker and Chalmers, have in various instances done, that they abound in many other symptoms of forgery, which, though not perhaps conclusive, when taken separately, make up, when combined, a very strong presumption against them. It might be shown, for example, _first_, that as Mary, in all probability, did not set off for Glasgow till Friday the 24th of January 1567, and staid a night at Callendar on the way, it is quite impossible she could have been at Glasgow on Saturday the 25th, though her second letter ends with these words:--"From Glasgow, this Saturday, in the morning."[263] She is thus made to have written two letters from Glasgow, one of them a very long one, by Saturday morning; while, in point of fact, she could not have reached that town till Saturday afternoon. "_Non sunt hæc satis divisa temporibus._"[264] It might be shown, _second_, that these letters were neither addressed, signed, nor sealed; and that, in the words of Whittaker, "it violates every principle of probability to suppose, that letters with such a plenitude of murderous evidence in them should be sent open."[265] It might be shown, _third_, that before the appearance of the letters, they were differently described at different times, as if they were gradually undergoing changes;--that in the Act of Privy Council, in which they are first referred to, they are mentioned as Mary's "Privy Letters, written and _subscribed_ with her own hand;"--but in the Act of Parliament passed a few weeks afterwards, they are only spoken of as "_written wholly_ with her own hand," not, "written and subscribed;"[266]--that though at first nothing was spoken of as having been found in the box but the "Privy Letters," "written and subscribed with her own hand," and afterwards only "wholly written with her own hand," yet, before the box made its appearance at York, love-sonnets and contracts of marriage were also found in it;--and that at York and Westminster only five letters were laid before the Commissioners, though the number afterwards printed was eight. "Did the three remaining letters," asks Whittaker, "lie still lower in the box, under the contracts and sonnets, and so escape the notice of the rebels?"[267] It might be shown, _fourth_, that all the letters are contradicted and overthrown by the first three lines of the ninth sonnet, which are, in French, ----"Pour luy aussi J'ay jeté mainte larme, Premier qu'il fust de ce corps possesseur, _Du quel alors il n'avoit pas le coeur_;"