"Lord Herries,--I am informed that you have spoken and affirmed, that my Lord Regent's Grace and his company here present, were guilty of the abominable murder of the late King, our Sovereign Lord's father. If you have so spoken, you have said untruly, and have lied in your throat, which I will maintain, God willing, against you, as becomes me of honour and duty. And hereupon I desire your answer. Subscribed with my hand, at Kingston, the twenty-second day of December 1568. PATRICK LINDSAY." To this epistle Lord Herries made the following spirited reply: "Lord Lindsay,--I have seen a writing of yours, the 22d of December, and thereby understand,--'You are informed that I have said and affirmed, that the Earl of Murray, whom you call your Regent, and his company, are guilty of the Queen's husband's slaughter, father to our Prince; and if I said it, I have lied in my throat, which you will maintain against me as becomes you of honour and duty.' In respect they have accused the Queen's Majesty, mine and your native Sovereign, of that foul crime, far from the duty that good subjects owed, or ever have been seen to have done to their native Sovereign,--I have said--'There is of that company present with the Earl of Murray, guilty of that abominable treason, in the fore-knowledge and consent thereto.' That you were privy to it, Lord Lindsay, I know not; and if you will say that I have specially spoken of you, you lie in your throat; and that I will defend as of my honour and duty becomes me. But let any of the principal that is of them subscribe the like writing you have sent to me, and I shall point them forth, and fight with some of the traitors therein; for meetest it is that traitors should pay for their own treason. HERRIES. London, 22d of December 1568." No answer appears to have been returned to this letter, and so the affair was dropped.--Goodall, vol. ii. p. 271. [174] Goodall, vol. ii. p. 313. [175] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 327. [176] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 332. [177] Anderson, vol. i. p. 80. [178] Strype, vol. i. p. 538.--Chalmers, vol. i. p. 337. [179] Stranguage, p. 114. [180] Goodall, vol. ii. p. 375.--Anderson, vol. ii. p. 261.--Stuart, vol. ii. p. 59.--Chalmers, vol. i. p. 349. [181] Anderson, vol. iii. p. 248. [182] See "An Account of the Life and Actions of the Reverend Father in God, John Lesley, Bishop of Ross," in Anderson, vol. iii. p. vii. [183] Miss Benger, vol. ii. p. 439. [184] Additions to the Memoirs of Castelnau, p. 589, et seq. [185] Laing, vol. ii. p. 285.