SEPTEMBER 205 



He was a trusted councillor of Mary Queen of Scots, and 

 was present with her at the battle of Langside. There 

 are preserved in the Culzean charter-room many interest- 

 ing letters to him from the queen, written by an amanu- 

 ensis, but signed by herself, and sometimes an autograph 

 postscript was added. It is rather interesting to note 

 how much more fluently the queen wrote in French than 

 in English; indeed, her spelling in the latter language 

 exceeds even the liberal latitude of orthography in the 

 sixteenth century. 



'Ze schal be asuried (she wrote in 1568) that I schal be as 

 kerful off zour well and of zour hous as zou shal wuische mi, as 

 ze shal hir by zour awn man wuam tu I hef spokne my mynd.' 



And again in the same year : 



' ie vous prie en labsance de mi lord boyd, que ie retiens pour vn 

 temps pour mon seruise, suporter et meintenir son fils & ser- 

 viteurs en leur actions. Mi lord heris (Herries) vous informera 

 de lestat de mes affayres; ie vous pri aussi vser de son bon 

 conseil comme celui qui scet lestast des choses issi.' 



But this ' richt gud cusigne and trustye frind,' as Mary 

 was wont to call him, sometimes played a role less amiable 

 than the champion of beauty in distress, and of the 

 extraordinary proceedings in which he bore a leading 

 part a minute chronicle by a contemporary but anony- 

 mous writer has been preserved. 1 This has been care- 

 fully edited by Mr. Robert Pitcairn, who said that at one 

 time he believed it to have been the work of Mure of 

 Auchendrayne when confined in the Tolbooth of Edin- 

 burgh, awaiting his trial for the series of atrocious crimes 



1 Historic of the Kennedyis, with notes, etc., by Robert Pitcairn. 

 Edinburgh, 1830. 



