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While living at St. Jean d'Angely, Mr. Welch
evinced, on an occasion which called for it, a degree
of courage in the field not less remarkable than that
which distinguished him in the pulpit. A war
having broken out between Louis XIII. and his
Protestant subjects, the former besieged the town in
person. During the siege Mr. Welch not only ex-
horted the inhabitants to make a determined and
vigorous resistance, but took his place upon the walls
of the city, and assisted in serving the guns. When
the town capitulated, which it finally did, in terms
of a treaty entered into with the besiegers, the
French monarch ordered Mr. Welch, who, with
characteristic intrepidity continued to preach, to be
brought before him. The messenger whom he des-
patched for this purpose was the Duke d'Espernon,
who entered the church in which Mr. Welch was at
the moment preaching, with a party of soldiers to
take him from the pulpit. On perceiving the duke
enter, Mr. Welch called out to him in a loud and
authoritative tone to sit down and hear the word of
God. The duke instinctively or unconsciously obeyed,
and not only quietly awaited the conclusion of the
sermon, but listened to it throughout with the great-
est attention, and afterwards declared himself to have
been much edified by it. On being brought into the
presence of the king, the latter angrily demanded of
Mr. Welch how he had dared to preach, since it
was contrary to the laws of the kingdom for such as
he to officiate in places where the court resided.
Mr. Welch's reply was bold and characteristic.
"Sir," he said, "if your majesty knew what I
preached, you would not only come and hear it
yourself, but make all France hear it; for I preach
not as those men you used to hear. First, I preach
that you must be saved by the merits of Jesus Christ,
and not your own (and I am sure your conscience
tells you that your good works will never merit
heaven): next, I preach that, as you are king of
France, there is no man on earth above you; but
these men whom you hear subject you to the pope
of Rome, which I will never do." This last remark
was so exceedingly gratifying to the king, that it had
the effect not only of disarming him of his wrath,
but induced him to receive the speaker instantly into
his royal favour. "Very well," replied Louis, "you
shall be my minister;" and to these expressions of
good-will he added an assurance of his protection, a
pledge which he afterwards amply redeemed. When
St. Jean D'Angely was again besieged by the French
monarch in 1621, he ordered the captain of his
guard to protect the house and property of "his
minister," and afterwards supplied him with horses
and waggons to transport his family to Rochelle,
whither he removed on the capture of the town.
Mr. Welch was at this period seized with an illness
which his physicians declared could be removed
only by his returning to breathe the air of his native
country. Under these circumstances he ventured,
in 1622, to come to London, hoping that when there
he should be able to obtain the king's permission to
proceed to Scotland. This request, however, James,
dreading Welch's influence, absolutely refused.
Among those, and they were many, who interceded
with the king in behalf of the dying divine, was his
wife. On obtaining access to James the following
extraordinary, but highly characteristic conversation,
as recorded by Dr. M'Crie in his Life of Knox,
took place between the intrepid daughter of the stern
reformer and the eccentric monarch of England: His
majesty asked her, who was her father. She replied,
"Mr. Knox." "Knox and Welch," exclaimed he,
"the devil never made such a match as that." "It's
right like, sir," said she, "for we never speired his
VOL. III.
advice." He asked her how many children her
father had left, and if they were lads or lasses. She said
three, and they were all lasses. "God be thanked!"
cried the king, lifting up both his hands, "for an
they had been three lads, I had never bruicked my
three kingdoms in peace." She again urged her
request that he would give her husband his native
air. "Give him his native air!" replied the king.
"Give him the devil!" a morsel which James had
often in his mouth. "Give that to your hungry cour-
tiers," said she, offended at his profaneness. He
told her at last, that if she would persuade her
husband to submit to the bishops, he would allow
him to return to Scotland. Mrs. Welch, lifting up
her apron and holding it towards the king, replied,
in the true spirit of her father, "Please your majesty,
I'd rather kep his head there."
Although James would not permit Mr. Welch to
return to Scotland, he was prevailed upon by the
friends of the latter, though not without much im-
portunity, to allow him to preach in London. They
had entreated this as an alternative in the event of
his refusing him permission to return to his native
country, and they eventually succeeded in obtaining
from James a reluctant consent. On learning that
this indulgence had been granted him, the dying
preacher, for his complaint was rapidly gaining
ground upon him, hastened to avail himself of it.
He appeared once more in the pulpit, preached a
long and pathetic sermon; but it was his last. When
he had concluded his discourse he returned to his
lodging, and in two hours afterwards expired, in the
53d year of his age. It is said that Mr. Welch's
death was occasioned by an ossification of the limbs,
brought on by much kneeling in his frequent and
long-protracted devotional exercises. Like many of
the eminently pious and well-meaning men of the
times in which he lived, Mr. Welch laid claim to the
gift of prescience, and his life, as it appears in the
Scots Worthies, compiled by Howie of Lochgoin,
presents a number of instances of the successful
exercise of this gift; but no one now who has any
sincere respect for the memory of such truly worthy
persons and sincere Christians as Mr. Welch, can
feel much gratified by seeing him invested, by a mis-
taken veneration, with an attribute which does not
belong to humanity.
WELLWOOD, SIR HENRY MONCRIEFF, BA-
RONET, D.D., an eminent divine, was born at Black-
ford near Stirling, in February 1750. He was the
eldest son of Sir William Moncrieff, Bart., minister
of the parish just named; a man of singular merits
and virtues, and who possessed an influence over his
parishioners and in the surrounding country which
these alone could bestow.
The subject of this memoir was destined from an
early age, as well by his own choice as the desire of
his father, to the clerical profession; and with this
view he repaired to the university of Glasgow, after
completing an initiatory course of education at the
parochial school of Blackford. Having given a due
attendance on the literary and philosophical classes
in the university, Sir Henry entered on the study of
theology, in which he made a progress that raised
the highest hopes of his future eminence; and these
hopes were not disappointed. About this period he
had the misfortune to lose his venerable father, who
sank into a premature grave: but the esteem in
which that good man was held did not die with him.
All those who had any influence in the appointment
of a successor to his charge, unanimously resolved
that his son should be that person; and further, that
as he had not yet attained the age at which he could,
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