[261] Goodall, ii. 361. B. M. Titus, c. 12, fol. 157 (_olim_ 175). ‘And gif it beis allegit, yat hir ma{tz} wretting producit in pliamẽt, sould proiff hir g, culpable. It maybe ansrit yat yäre is na plane mentione maid in it, be ye quhilk hir hienes may be convict Albeit it wer hir awin hand wreitt, as it is not And als the same is cuttit (cullit?) be yame selfis in sum principall & substantious clausis.’ [262] Sepp, _Tagebuch_, Munich, 1882. [263] Bain, ii. 441, 442. [264] _Maitland Club Miscellany_, iv. 120, 121. [265] Teulet, ii. 248. [266] Bain, ii. 517. [267] Bain, ii. 434. [268] Nov. 8, 1571. Murdin, p. 57. [269] State Trials, i. 978. [270] As to ‘the subtlety of that practice,’ which puzzled Mr. Froude, Laing offers a highly ingenious conjecture. Mary was to do the Scots translations, procured for her by Lethington, into her own French, omitting the compromising portions. Lethington was next ‘privately to substitute or produce the Queen’s transcript instead of the originals, with the omission of those criminal passages, which might then be opposed as interpolated in the translation.’ But in that case ‘some variance of phrase’ by Mary could bring nothing ‘to light,’ for there would be no originals to compare. Lethington, while slipping Mary’s new transcript into the Casket (Laing, i. 145, 146), would, of course, remove the original letters in French, leaving the modified transcript in their place. ‘Variance of phrase’ between an original and a translation could prove nothing. Moreover, if Lethington had access to the French letters, it was not more dangerous for him to destroy them than to substitute a version which Moray, Morton, Buchanan, and all concerned could honestly swear to be false. The Bishop of Ross did, later, manage an ingenious piece of ‘palming’ letters on Cecil, but, in the story of ‘palming’ fresh transcripts into the Casket there is no consistency. Moreover Melville’s word is at least as good as Lesley’s, and Melville denies the truth of Lesley’s confession. [271] British Museum Addit. MSS. 33531, fol. 119, _et seq._ The MS. is much injured. [272] Murdin, pp. 52, 58. [273] Bain, ii. 524. [274] Addit. MSS. _ut supra_. [275] Goodall, ii. 111. [276] Bain, ii. 518, 519. [277] _Ibid._ 519. [278] Bain, ii. 524. [279] Lennox MSS. [280] Bain, ii. 520, 521. [281] Goodall, ii. 140. [282] The production is asserted, Goodall, ii. 87. [283] Calderwood, iii. 556. [284] For the Ainslie Band, and the signatories, see Bain, ii. 322, and Hay Fleming, p. 446, note 60, for all the accounts. [285] Hosack, i. 543.