As I shall answer unto God, with whom I hope this night to sup, I shall declare unto you the whole, from the beginning unto the end, of my part. First, I confess that the Earl Bothwell showed that same wicked deed unto me in his own chamber in the Abbey on Friday before the deed was done, and required me to take part with him therein.... The said earl said unto me, "Tush, Ormiston, ye need not take fear for this, for the whole lords have concluded this same long since in Craigmillar, all that were there with the Queen, and none dare find fault with it when it shall be done." ... Who {Bothwell} let me see a contract subscribed by four or five handwrites, which he affirmed to me was the subscription of the Earl of Huntly, Argyll, the Secretary Maitland, and Sir James Balfour, and alleged that many more promised, who would assist him if he were put at: and thereafter read the said contract, which, as I remember, contained these words in effect: "That for as much it was thought expedient and most profitable for the common wealth, by the whole nobility and lords undersubscribed, that such a young fool and proud tyrant should not reign nor bear rule over them; and that for divers causes therefore, that they all had concluded that he should be put off by one way or other, and whosoever should take the deed in hand they should defend and fortify it as themselves, for it should be every one of their own reckoned and held done by themselves." Which writing, as the said earl shewed unto me, was devised by Sir James Balfour, subscribed by them all a quarter of a year before the deed was done. 1581.--June 2. The Confession of the Earl of Morton. [The Earl of Morton having made during his tenure of the government many enemies, was driven from power and accused of complicity in the murder of Darnley. The indictment ("Arnot's Criminal Trials," p. 388, quoted by Laing, vol. ii, p. 350) mentions as his accomplices "James, some time Earl Bothwell; James Ormiston, some time of that ilk; Robert _alias_ Hob Ormiston, his father's brother; John Hay, some time of Talla, younger; John Hepburn, called John of Bolton; and divers others," and says that the murderers "two hours after midnight ... came to the lodging ... and there ... most vilely, unmercifully, and treasonably slew and murdered him ... burnt his whole lodging foresaid, and raised the same in the air by force of gunpowder, which a little before was placed ... by him and his foresaids under the ground, and angular stones, and within the vaults, in low and secret parts thereof." The Earl was found guilty, on the 1st of June, of "art, part, foreknowledge, and concealing of the treasonable and unnatural murder foresaid," and was executed next day. A few hours before his death he made a confession to three of the ministers of Edinburgh, part of which is here quoted.] _Laing_, vol. ii. p. 354.