Being required what was his part or knowledge in the King's murther, he answered with this attestation. As I shall answer to my Lord God, I shall declare truly all my knowledge in that matter, the sum whereof is this: After my returning out of England, where I was banished for Davie's slaughter, I came out of Wedderburn to Whittinghame {Castle}, where the Earl Bothwell and I met together in the yard of Whittinghame, where, after long communing, the Earl Bothwell proposed to me the King's murther, requiring what would be my part therein, seeing it was the Queen's mind that the King should be taken away, because, as he said, she blamed the King more of Davie's slaughter than me. My answer to the Earl Bothwell was this, that I would not in any way meddle with that matter.... The Earl Bothwell ... thereafter earnestly proposed the same matter again to me, persuading me thereto, because so was the Queen's mind, and she would have it to be done. Unto this my answer was, I desired the Earl Bothwell to bring me the Queen's handwrit of this matter for a warrant; other ways I would not meddle thereof, which warrant he never purchased {brought}.... Then it was said to him, "Apparently, my lord, ye cannot complain justly of the sentence that is given against you, seeing with your own mouth ye confess the foreknowledge and concealing of the King's murther." ... He answered, "That I know to be true indeed, but yet they should have considered the danger that the revealing of it would have brought to me at that time; for I durst not reveal it for fear of my life. For at that time to whom should I have revealed it? To the Queen? She was the doer thereof. I was minded to have told it to the King's self, but I durst not for my life, for I knew him to be a bairn of such nature, that there was nothing told him but he would reveal it to her again." ... Then he said, "After the Earl Bothwell was cleansed by an assize, sundry of the nobility and I subscrived also a bond with the Earl Bothwell, that if any should lay the King's murder to his charge, we should assist him in the contrary. And thereafter I subscrived to the Queen's marriage with the Earl Bothwell, as sundry others of the nobility did, being charged thereto by the Queen's writ and command." Then being inquired in name of the living God, that seeing this murther was one of the most filthy acts that ever was done in Scotland, and the secrets thereof have not yet been declared, who were the chief doers, or whether he was worried, or blown in the air, and therefore pressed to declare if he knew any further secret thereunto; he answered, "As I shall answer to God, I know no more secret in that matter than I have already told." Letter from Mr. Archibald Douglas to the Queen of Scots. _Robertson's History of Scotland_, App. XIV., from Harl. Lib. xxxvii. bk. ix. fol. 126.