The haggling was not ended. On December 16, 1568, Elizabeth offered three choices to Lesley: Mary might send a trusty person with orders to make a direct answer; or answer herself to nobles sent by Elizabeth; or appoint her Commissioners, or any others, to answer before Elizabeth’s Commissioners.[324] Lesley fell back on Elizabeth’s promises: and an anecdote about Trajan. On December 23 or 24, Mary’s Commissioners received a letter by her written at Bolton on December 19.[325] Mr. Hosack says that ‘she commanded them forthwith to charge the Earl of Moray and his accomplices’ with Darnley’s murder.[326] But that was just what Mary did not do as far as her letter goes, though on December 24, Herries declared that she did.[327] Friends and foes of Mary alike pervert the facts. Mary first said that she had received the ‘Eik’ in which her accusers lied, attributing to her the crimes of which they are guilty. She glanced scornfully at the charge that _she_ meant to murder her child, whom _they_ had striven to destroy in her womb, at Riccio’s murder: ‘intending to have slane him and us both.’ She then, before she answers, asks to see the copies and originals of the Casket Letters, ‘the principal writings, if they have any produced,’ which she as yet knew not. And then, if she may see Elizabeth, she will prove her own innocence and her adversaries’ guilt. Thus she does not by any means bid her friends _forthwith_ to accuse her foes. That would have been absurd, till she had seen the documents brought against her as proofs. But, to shorten a long story, neither at the repeated request of her Commissioners, nor of La Mothe, who demanded this act of common justice, would Elizabeth permit Mary to see either the originals, or even copies, of the Casket Letters. She promised, and broke her promise.[328] This incident left Mary with the advantage. How can an accused person answer, if not allowed to see the documents in the case? We may argue that Elizabeth refused, because politics drifted into new directions, and inspired new designs. But Mary’s defenders can always maintain that she never was allowed to see the evidence on which she was accused. From Mary’s letter of December 19, or rather from Lesley’s précis of it (‘Extract of the principall heidis’) it is plain that she does not bid her Commissioners accuse anybody, _at the moment_. But, on December 22, Lindsay challenged Herries to battle for having said that Moray, and ‘his company here present,’ were guilty of Darnley’s death. Herries admitted having said that _some_ of them were guilty. Lindsay lies in his throat if he avers that Herries spoke of him specially: and, on that quarrel, Herries will fight. And he will fight any of the principals of them if they sign Lindsay’s challenge, ‘and I shall point them forth and fight with some of the traitors therein.’ He communicated the challenge and reply to Leicester.[329] Herries probably hoped to fight Morton and Lethington.