The first deposition of Paris is a Confession, in French, made at
St. Andrews on 9th August 1569, "without any constraint or
interrogations." It states that, on the Wednesday or Thursday before
the murder, Bothwell told Paris of the plot, and requested his aid.
"What do you think?" said he.... "My Lord," said I, "I have served
you these five or six years in all your great troubles ... now, my
Lord, by the grace of God, you are free of all these difficulties
... if you undertake this great matter you will be in worse case
than before." Bothwell then assured him that Lethington was the
moving spirit, and that Argyll, Huntly, Morton, Ruthven, and Lindsay
were in league with him. Paris then asked, "My Lord, I pray you tell
me of one whom you have not named; I well know that he is loved in
this country of the common people." ... "Who is that?" said he. "It
is, my Lord," said I, "my Lord the Earl of Murray; I pray tell me
what part he will take." To which he replied, "He will not meddle
with it." "My Lord," said I, "he is wise." Then the Lord Bothwell
turned his head to me ... and said, "My Lord of Murray, my Lord of
Murray, he will neither help nor hinder; but it is all one." ... On
the Saturday before the murder, Margaret Carwood, one of the Queen's
attendants, told "Paris to go to Kirk-of-Field for the coverlet of
the mattress in the Queen's room," which he did.... When he heard of
Murray's leaving Edinburgh on Sunday morning to see his mother, he
remarked that he did it to be out of the way when the wicked deed
should take place, and so to dissociate himself from it. On Sunday
evening Mary supped with Argyll, and seeing Paris, "as she washed
her hands after supper, she asked me if I had removed the coverlet
of the bed in her room in the King's lodging." These are the main
points of interest in the first document signed by Paris. {Laing,
vol. ii. p. 296.}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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