276 TWO CHAPTERS ILLDSTRATIVE OF 



court, where being come, for exoneration of the king, he behoved to 

 take upon him the guilt of writing that letter.* It is also asserted 

 by Balfour, that he (Bal merino), confessed simultatly, as was 

 thought by thesse, that he wnderstood the courte, and how matters 

 then went, to liberat the king of such grossness."t Let us now 

 hear the declaration of the ill-treated secretary himself:—" Next 

 followed my conviction in St. Andrew's, wherein I was the only 

 actor myself, to give his majesty satisfaction, following in every 

 point the Earl of Dunbar's direction, brought to me by my Lord 

 Burley or the Lord Scone."J If suspicions still remain that James 

 was a stranger to this letter, these additional remarks may be 

 thrown out, to put an end to every doubt :^That Lord Home, who 

 was himself a papist, || had been entrusted with a secret commission 

 to the pope ; that the king, in his reply to the cardinal, as carefully 

 avoids all allusion to the letter of Balmerino or his confession as he 

 would the bite of a Rattlesnake ; and that, after this unfortunate 

 secretary had been convicted of treason, and had undergone a slight 

 imprisonment, his sentence, as stated by Burnett, was remitted, and 

 he was restored alike to his estate and blood.§ These facts are a 

 volume of argument. 



In the following passage, Higgons affirms that Burnett's words 

 mean to convey the infamous insinuation that James was the au- 

 thor of his son's death. His object, however, was simply to state 

 that Prince Henry died by poison, according to his belief, and that 

 Somerset, the king's unworthy favourite, had caused it to be admi- 

 nistered to him : — " Prince Henry was a prince of great hopes, but 

 so little like his father that he was rather feared than loved by him. 

 Whether his aversion to popery hastened his death or not I cannot 

 tell. Colonel Titus assured me, that he had from King Charles 

 the First's own mouth, that he was well assured that he was poi- 

 soned by the Earl of Somerset's means."** In the first assertion, 

 Burnett is supported by the most satisfactory authority, since, both 



" See the Staggering State of the Scots Statesmen, by Sir John Scott, p. GO. 



f See General Hist, of Scotland, vol. ii., p. 29. 



+ Caldewood, p. 600, 004, 605. 



II Winwood's Mem., vol. xi., p. 57. 



§ " Bahnenoche deyed of a fever and waikness in his stomache some few 

 monthes after the death of his arch enimey and competitor Cicill Earle of 

 Salisburney (after quhom if aney tyme he had survived as well talked by 

 them that best knew the Kyngs mynd) he had beine in grater crydit with 

 his master than ever." Balfours MSS. as quoted by Guthrie, vol. ix., 

 p. 53, 56. 



•• History of his own Time, vol. i., p. 18, 19. 



