That was the age of jugglers, and this story called the Gowrie Conspiracy presents some examples. The name of Spottiswood, who was then Archbishop of Glasgow, stands third in the list of those who sat upon the trial of George Sprot, the notary, from whose repositories the Logan letters were professed to have been produced. Spottiswood was also one of those who were on the scaffold at Sprot's execution, and his name stands first in the list of those who subscribed Sprot's final deposition there made.
"'A little before the execution,' Calderwood says,[1] 'when Mr. John Spotswood, bishop of Glasgow, said to Mr. Patrick Galloway, "I am afraid this man make us all ashamed," Mr. Patrick answered, "Let alone, my lord, I shall warrant him;" and indeed he had the most part of the speech to himself upon the scaffold.' Well may Mr. Napier say, 'Had the treasonable letters been produced on Sprot's trial, or even one well-authenticated letter, there would have been little reason for the courtly bishop expressing his fear that the wretched man on the scaffold would ' make us all ashamed.'. . . . This fact shakes the credit of this criminal process and the farce that followed to the very foundation."[2]
- ↑ Cited in Mr. Mark Napier's note to Spottiswood's Hist., vol. iii., p. 277.
- ↑ Note, Ibid., p. 277.
