 At the end of February Cuffe answered several questions respecting Essex's negotiations with King James of Scotland which the lords of the council put to him.He appears to have told the truth, but his replies show that he had not managed that part of Essex's correspondence, which was mainly in the hands of Anthony Bacon.Some days before his execution, however, he wrote to Sir Robert Cecil enclosing a copy of instructions which Essex had prepared for presentation to the Earl of Mar, an ambassador to Elizabeth from James, with the object of so poisoning Mar's mind against Cecil and his friends that Mar might communicate suspicion of them to the queen.