Letter of James IV to the Earl of Mar and Edward Bruce, mid-February, 1601 Notes for my ambassadors anent this accident [1] 1. If turns be remediable and that my friends [2] think it the best appearance for their safety that I lie still and that ye kythe [appear, making known] not, follow their advice but beware to be prevented ere ye look for it. 2. But if they think your kything in it may do good, stand not then upon terms and I shall avow you bravely. 3. And if they be resolved that they lack nothing but a head to enter in plain action with it, assure them I shall be as willing and ready to supply that place as they can be to desire me, only with that old reservation of the safety of the Queen's person, which ye maun [must] take them sworn to. 4. But if, as God forbid, it be past redding [saving] ere ye come there, use then all the means ye can to get me a party there and assure them that I can neither with honour nor surety disguise myself any longer. 5. And if when ye come to Berwick ye find any peril of preventing your coming, post up with all speed tua [thitherward] and be not a ble[...] ambassador, but remember of little lomini [3]. JAMES R [1] The Essex Rebellion [2] The supporters of the Earl of Essex [3] Perhaps Antoine Lomenie de Brinne Document Location: National Library of Scotland,MS. 33.1.7, Vol XXI, item 6 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright © 1997 The Gunpowder Plot Society; Transcribed by Jennifer O'Brien.