"RYCHT HONOURABLE AND TRAIST COUSING,--I commend me hartlie to you,
nocht doutting bot my lord governour hes written specialye to you at
this tyme to keep the diet with his lordship in Edinburgh the first day
of November nixt to cum, quhilk I dout nocht bot ye will kepe, and I
know perfitlie your guid will and mynd euer inclinit to serue my lord
governour, and how ye are nocht onnely determinit to serue his lordship,
at this tyme be yourself bot als your gret wais and solistatioun maid
with mony your gret freyndis to do the samin, quhilk I assuris you sall
cum bayth to your hier honour and the vele of you and your houss and
freyndis, quhilk ye salbe sure I sall procure and fortyfie euir at my
power, as I have shewin in mair speciale my mynd heirintil to your
cousin of Brechin, Knycht: Praing your effectuously to kepe trist, and
to be heir in Sanct Androwis at me this nixt Wedinsday, that we may
depairt all togydder by Thurisday nixt to cum, towart my lord governour,
and bring your frendis and servandis with you accordantly, and as my
lord governour hais speciale confidence in you at this tyme; and be sure
the plesour I can do you salbe evir reddy at my power as knawis God,
quha preserve you eternall.
"At Sanct Androwis, the 25th day of October (1544). J. CARDINALL OFF
SANCT ANDROWIS.
"To the rycht honourable and our rycht traist cousing the lard of Dvn."
"Most interesting!" declared the young girl, holding the frame in her
hands.
"It's doubly interesting, because it is believed that Erskine's brother
Henry, finding himself befooled by the crafty Cardinal, united with Lord
Glencardine to kill him and dispose of his body secretly, thus ridding
Scotland of one of her worst enemies," Walter went on. "For the past
five years stories had been continually leaking out of Setoun's inhuman
cruelty, his unscrupulous, fiendish tortures inflicted upon all those
who displeased him, and how certain persons who stood in his way had
died mysteriously or disappeared, no one knew whither. Hence it was
that, at Erskine's suggestion, Wemyss of Strathblane went over to
Glencardine, and with Charles, Lord Glencardine, conspired to invite the
Cardinal there, on pretence of taking counsel against the Protestants,
but instead to take his life. The conspirators were, it is said, joined
by the Earl of Kintyre and by Mary, the sixteen-year-old daughter of
Lord Charles, and sister of the poor girl so brutally done to death by
his Eminence. On several successive nights the best means of getting rid
of Setoun were considered and discussed, and it is declared that the
Whispers now heard sometimes at Glencardine are the secret deliberations
of those sworn to kill the infamous Cardinal. Mary, the daughter of the
house, was allowed to decide in what manner her sister's death should be
avenged, and at her suggestion it was resolved that the inhuman head of
the Roman Church should, before his life was taken, be put to the same
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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