4 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Kirk-of-Field.
begun to entertain of his own safety ; for he knew
that he had many bitter enemies, against whom he
trusted that her presence would protect him,
Many persons are said to have suspected Bothwell?s
fell purpose, but none dared apprise him of
his danger, ? as he revealed all,? says Mehil, ? to
some of his own servants, who were not honest.?
Three days before the murder, the Lord Robert
Stuart, Mary?s illegitimate brother, warned Darnley
that if he did not quit the Kirk-of-Field ?? it would
cost him his life.?
Darnley informed Mary of this, on which she
sent for her brother, and inquired his meaning in
her husband?s presence ; but Lord Robert, afraid
of involving himself with Bothwell and the many
noble and powerful adherents of that personage,
denied ever having made any such statement.
?? This information,? adds Melvil, ?? moved the Earl
of Bothwell to haste forward with his enterprise.?
He had secured either the tacit assent or active
co-operation of the Earls of Huntley, Argyle, Caithness,
and the future Regent Morton, of Archibald
Douglas, and many others of the leading lords and
officers of state ; and in addition to these conspirators
of high rank, he had received a number of
other unscrupulous wretches, with whom Scotland
seemed at that time to abound.
Four of these, Wilson, Powrie, Dalgleish, and
French Paris, were only humble retainers; but
other four who were active in the Kirk-of-Field
tragedy were John Hepburn of Bolton, John Hay
of Tallo, the Laird of Ormiston, and Hob Ormiston
his uncle.
Bothwell artfully contrived to get the Frenchman
Paris, who had been long in his service, taken into
that of the queen about this period, and thus
render important service by obtaining the door-key
of the Kirk-of-Field House, from which impressions
were taken and counterfeits made.
If the depositions of this villain are to be
credited, it was not until Wednesday, the 5th of
February (1567), that the plot was revealed to him,
and that on seeing him grow faint-hearted at dread
of his own danger, Bothwell asked him, impatiently,
more than once, what he thought of it. ?Pardon
me, sir,? replied Paris, ? if I tell you my opinion
according to my poor mind.?
?What ! are you going to preach to me ? asked
Bothwzll, scornfully.
Paris ultimately consented to act; and it
would seem that Bothwell for a few days was un.
decided, like his four chief accomplices, whether to
slay Darnley when walking in the garden or sleep
ing in bed, or to blow the house and its inmates up
together. Eventually a quantity of Government
?owder was brought from the Castle of Dunbar to
Bothwell?s house, near Holyrood, and Paris was
nstructed to admit Hay, Hepburn, and Ormiston
.nto the queen?s room, below that of Darnley, from
which he, to blacken her, alleged she removed a
valuable coverlet-a very unlikely act of parsimony
3n her part.
On the night of Sunday, the 9th of February, all
was ready for the dreadful project. When the dusk
fell Bothwell assembled the conspirators at his own
house, znd, according to the depositions of Powrie,
Dalgleish, Tallo, and others, allotted to each the
prim part he was to play. He was well aware that
the queen had dined that day at the palace, and
that in the evening she was to sup with the Bishop
of Argyle in the house of Mr. John Balfour, with
whom the prelate lodged.
At nine she left the supper-table, and, accompanied
by the Earls of ?Argyle, Huntley, and
Cassilis, went to visit Darnley at the Kirk-of-
Field before returning to Holyrood, where she
was to be present at a masque in honour of the
marriage of Margaret Carwood, one of her favourite
attendants.
Meanwhile, Dalgleish, Powrie, and U?ilson, were
conveying the powder in bags from Bothwell?s
house to the convent gate at the foot of the Blackfriars
Wynd, where it was received by Hay of Tallo,
Hepburn of Bolton and Ormiston, who desired them
to return home.
Bothwell, who had been present with her at the
banquet of the bishop, quitted the table at the
same time as Mary, but left her and walked up and
down the Cowgate while the powder was being
received and deposited. By his orders a large
empty barrel was deposited in the Dominican
garden. Into this all the bags of powder were to
have been placed, but as the lower back door of
the Provost?s house was too small to admit it, they
were conveyed in separately, and placed in a heap
on the floor of the room beneath that in which the
victim then lay a-bed.
At length all was in readiness ; the queen had
departed by torchlight to the Holyrood masque,
attended by Bothwell, and Ormiston had withdrawn;
but Hay and Hepburn, with their false
keys, remained in the room with the powder. Paris,
who had in his pocket the key of the queen?s room
in the Kirk-of-Field, followed her train to the palace.
If, again, any credit can be given to the confession
of Pans, he stated that on entering the .
ball-room where the masquers were dancing, a
melancholy seized him, and he remained apart from
all; on which Bothwell accosted him angrily,
saying that if he retained that gloomy visage in
