them might lay the lesson to heart. He told the French ambassador to warn "that murderer his master" that sentence had been pronounced against him; that God's vengeance “shall never depart from him nor his house, but that the same shall remain an execration unto the posterities to come, and that nane that shall come of his loins shall enjoy the kingdom in peace and quietness, unless repentance prevent God's judgments."1

This was the last flicker of the flame; a week or two thereafter Knox took to his bed, and he died on the 24th of November. A Convention of all the Reformed Kirks within the realm, to consider how they could protect themselves against the "great murders and mair than beastly cruelties of the bloody and treassonable Papists," and from the decrees of the "devilish and terrible Council of Trent," had been called by the Privy Council for the 20th October; but it does not appear that Knox was present at the meeting. His thoughts in these last days turned again to the men in the Castle, one of whom he "had loved so dearly." He had told his hearers months before at St Andrews that the Castle of Edinburgh would "rin like a sand-glass"; that it would "spew out the Captain with shame"; that Grange would leave it not through the gate,

Bannatyne, 402.

but over the wall. Now from his sickbed he sent a parting message to Kirkaldy,—which was brought to the Castle by Mr David Lindsay, the minister of Leith;-"Go, I pray, and tell him that I have sent you to him once more to warn and bid him, in the name of God, leave that evil cause, and give over that Castle; gif he will not, he shall be brought down over the walls of it with shame, and hing against the sun; so God has assurit me.' Mr David, howbeit he thought the message hard and the threatning over particular, yet obeyed, and past to the Castle, and meeting with Sir Robert Melville walking on the wall, told him; wha was, as he thought, mickle movit with the matter. Thereafter he communed with the Captain, whom he thought also somewhat movit; but he passed from him to the Secretary Lethington, with whom, when he had conferred a while, he came out to Mr David again, and said to him, 'Go, tell Mr Knox he is but a drytting prophet!' Mr David, returning, told Mr Knox he had discharged the commission faithfully; but that it was nocht weill accepted of, after the Captain had conferred with the Secretary. Weill,' says Mr Knox, 'I have been earnest with my God anent they twa men; for the ane I am sorry that so it should befall him, yet God assures me that there is mercy for his soul; for that uther

I haif na warrand that ever he sal be well.' Mr David says he thought it hard, yet keipit it in mind till Mr Knox was at rest with God."

They had come to the last act of the play. Neither Knox nor Maitland was long for this world. But the characteristics of the two men. are carefully preserved in the closing scene,each is consistent, logical, to the end. Maitland continued to scoff as he had scoffed from the beginning at the spiritual thunders of the Kirk, -Knox was but a "drytting prophet"; while Knox, in the exercise of "a commission man cannot limitate," declared the judgment of the Almighty. "I.haif na warrand that ever he sal be weill."

Knox died about "eleven hours at even" on the day that Morton was made Regent. Morton, as we have seen, had long been the ruling spirit of the faction opposed to Mary; and when, on Mar's sudden death, the highest place in Scotland became vacant once more, it was immediately recognised that, among the King's men, Morton was the only possible candidate. On his election, any hope of peaceful adjustment had to be renounced. Neither Maitland nor Kirkaldy could venture to treat, as they said, with their most bitter enemy; and Morton's policy was

1 Melville's Autobiography, 34.

2 There was, however, some talk of Argyll.

summed up in the brief but comprehensive formula-" Hang them all."

The Abstinence, the "tragic nuptials" at Paris, and Morton's election, were the beginning of the end. On the 1st of January, before the citizens were out of bed, a warning gun from the Castle announced that the truce was over. Measures had been already taken by the Regent, notwithstanding the armistice, to hem the Castle people in. "A fortress and bulwark had been erected before the face of the Tolbooth that looked to the Castle, in the strait passage opposite the goldsmiths' shops; and another in the strait passage opposite the north door of the Capital Kirk." The Castle was now closely invested, and the isolation of the defenders was complete. Outside the walls, as I have said, intrigue had been at work; and the siege had hardly recommenced before it was found that the great Lords who had hitherto supported MaryHuntly, Hamilton, and the others—were willing to come to terms. Maitland addressed a passionate remonstrance to Huntly (Elizabeth, he said, would be afraid to meddle, and aid was on its way from France); but Huntly had made up his mind to go with the rest, and the agreement known as the Pacification of Perth-23d

1 Historie of King James the Sext, 125.

2 Maitland to Huntly, 23d February 1573.

February 1573-was accepted with practical unanimity. Elizabeth still wavered at times; but the negotiations with Morton for the judicial murder of Mary were progressing satisfactorily, and she was coming to feel that the unscrupulous Douglas was an invaluable ally. Blunt and insolent by nature, he was her humble servant, and his singular fidelity to the English alliance deserved to be rewarded. The year 1573 was yet young when, yielding to the steady pressure that was brought to bear upon her by her own ministers-by Burleigh, Drury, Randolph, and Killigrew-she gave instructions for the movement of the army across the Border. The defences of the Castle had been surreptitiously examined by English experts during the truce, and it had been ascertained that the cannon at Berwick might be trusted in the course of a few days to silence "muckle-mou'd Meg" and her sisters.

66

The letters of the English agents are filled with complaints of Lethington's obstinacy" at this supreme moment. There was still time to save him if he would only consent to accept the inevitable. "The flower of the wits of Scotland" was held in high esteem to the last by Elizabeth and her Ministers; and they were, I believe, sincerely anxious to save him. It was a thou

1 Register of Privy Council, ii. 193.