Scotland/Scots > Life of John Knox ; and, The life of Alexander Henderson

LIFE OF JOHN KNOX.
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ed constantly on his person, and bore the sword, which
was carried before him, from the time that an attempt
was made to assassinate him at Dundee. Wishart was
highly pleased with the zeal and talents of Knox, and
seems to have presaged his future usefulness, at the same
time that he laboured under a strong presentiment of his
own approaching martyrdom. On the night in which
he was apprehended by Bothwell, at the instigation of
the Cardinal, he directed the sword to be taken from
him, and while he insisted for liberty to accompany him
to Ormiston, dismissed him with this reply, “ Nay, re-
turne to your bairnes (meaning his pupils), and God blis
you: ane is sufficient for a sacrifice.”
Having relinquished all thoughts of officiating in that
church which had invested him with clerical orders,
Knox had entered as tutor into the family of Hugh
Douglas of Longniddrie, a gentleman in East Lothian,
who had embraced the reformed doctrines. John Cock-
bum of Ormiston, a neighbouring gentleman of the
same persuasion, also put his son under his tuition. These
young men were instructed by him in the principles
of religion, as well as of the learned languages. He
managed theii religious instraction in such a way as to
allow the rest of the family, and the people of the neigh¬
bourhood, to reap advantage from it. He catechised
them publicly in a chapel at Longniddrie, in which he
also read to them, at stated times, a chapter of the Bible,
accompanied with explanatory remarks. The memory of
this has been preserved by tradition, and the chapel, the
ruins of which are still apparent, is popularly called John
Knox’s kirk.
It wasnot to be expected, that he would long be suffered
to continue this employment, under a government which
was now entirely at the devotion of Cardinal Beatoun,
who had gained over to his measures the timid and irre¬
solute regent. But in the midst of his cruelties, and
while he was planning still more desperate deeds, the
Cardinal was himself suddenly cut off. A conspiracy