Volume 3 > Half-Volume 6

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gable zeal, which has been but rarely equalled in
any other person, and never surpassed. He preached
publicly once every day, prayed, besides, for seven
or eight hours during the same period, and did not
allow even the depth of the night to pass without
witnessing the ardency and enthusiasm of his devo-
tions. Every night before going to bed he threw a
Scotch plaid above his bed-clothes, that, when he
awoke to his midnight prayers, it might be in readi-
ness to wrap around his shoulders. These devo-
tional habits he commenced with his ministry at
Selkirk, and continued to the end of his life. Find-
ing his situation a very unpleasant one, Mr. Welch
readily obeyed a call which had been made to him
from Kirkcudbright, and lost no time in removing
thither. On this occasion a remarkable instance
occurred of that unaccountable dislike with which
he was viewed, and which neither his exemplary
piety nor upright conduct seems to have been capa-
ble of diminishing. He could not find any one
person in the whole town excepting one poor young
man of the name of Ewart, who would lend him any
assistance in transporting his furniture to his new
destination. Shortly after his settlement at Kirkcud-
bright Mr. Welch received a call from Ayr. This
invitation he thought proper also to accept, and pro-
ceeded thither in 1590.
Some of the details of this period of Mr. Welch's
life afford a remarkably striking evidence of the then
rude and barbarous state of the country. On his
arrival at Ayr, so great was the aversion of the in-
habitants to the ministerial character, and to the
wholesome restraints which it ought always to im-
pose, that he could find no one in the town who
would let him have a house to live in, and he was
thus compelled to avail himself of the hospitality of
a merchant of the name of Stewart, who offered him
the shelter of his roof. At this period, too, it ap-
pears that the streets of Ayr were constantly con-
verted into scenes of the most sanguinary combats
between factious parties, and so frequent and to
such an extent was this murderous turbulence carried
that no man could walk through the town with safety.
Among the first duties which Mr. Welch imposed
upon himself after his settlement at Ayr, was to
correct this ruthless and ferocious spirit, and the
method he took to accomplish his good work was a
singular, but, as it proved, effectual one. Regardless
of the consequences to himself, he rushed in between
the infuriated combatants, wholly unarmed, and no
otherwise protected from any accidental stroke of
their weapons than by a steel cap which he previously
placed on his head on such occasions. When he
had, by this fearless and determined proceeding, suc-
ceeded in staying the strife, he ordered a table to be
covered in the street, and prevailed upon the hostile
parties to sit down and eat and drink together, and
to profess themselves friends. This ceremony he
concluded with prayer and a psalm, in which all
joined. The novelty of this proceeding, the intre-
pidity of its originator, and above all the kind and
Christian-like spirit which it breathed, soon had the
most beneficial effects. The evil which Mr. Welch
thus aimed at correcting gradually disappeared, and
he himself was received into high favour by the in-
habitants of the town, who now began to reverence
his piety and respect his worth. While in Ayr Mr.
Welch not only adhered to the arduous course of
devotional exercise which he had laid down for him-
self at Selkirk, but increased its severity, by adopting
a practice of spending whole nights in prayer in the
church of Ayr, which was situated at some distance
from the town, and to which he was in the habit of
repairing alone for this pious purpose. Among the
other objects of pastoral solicitude which particularly
engaged Mr. Welch's attention during his ministry
at Ayr was the profanation of the Sabbath, one of
the most prominent sins of the place. This he also
succeeded in remedying to a great extent by a simi-
larly judicious conduct with that he observed in the
case of feuds and quarrels. This career of useful-
ness Mr. Welch pursued with unwearied diligence
and unabated zeal till the year 1605, when on an at-
tempt on the part of the king (James VI.) to suppress
General Assemblies, and on that of the clergy to
maintain them, he, with several more of his brethren,
was thrown into prison for holding a diet in opposi-
tion to the wishes of the court of delegates of synods,
of which Mr. Welch was one, at Aberdeen. For
this offence they were summoned before the privy-
council, but declining the jurisdiction of that court
in their particular case, they were indicted to stand
trial for high-treason at Linlithgow. By a series of
the most unjust, illegal, and arbitrary proceedings on
the part of the officers of the crown, a verdict of
guilty was obtained against them, and they were
sentenced to suffer the death of traitors. The con-
duct of the wives of the condemned clergymen, and
amongst those of Mrs. Welch in particular, on this
melancholy occasion, was worthy of the brightest
page in Spartan story. They left their families and
hastened to Linlithgow to be present at the trial of
their husbands, that they might share in their joy
if the result was favourable, and that they might
inspire them with courage if it were otherwise. On
being informed of the sentence of the court, "these
heroines," says Dr. M'Crie, "instead of lamenting
their fate, praised God, who had given their husbands
courage to stand to the cause of their Master, adding,
that like him, they had been judged and condemned
under the covert of night." If spirit be hereditary,
this magnanimous conduct, on the part of Mrs.
Welch at any rate, may be considered accounted for
by the circumstance of her having been the daughter
of John Knox. She was the third daughter of that
celebrated person. Either deterred by the popularity
of the prisoners, and the cause for which they suf-
fered, or satisfied with the power which the sentence
of the court had given him over their persons, James,
instead of bringing that sentence to a fatal issue,
contented himself with commuting it into banish-
ment; and on the 7th November, 1606, Mr. Welch,
accompanied by his wife and his associates in mis-
fortune, sailed from Leith for France, after an im-
prisonment of many months' duration in the castles
of Edinburgh and Blackness. So great was the
public sympathy for these persecuted men, that
though the hour of their embarkation was as early
as two o'clock of the morning, and that in the depth
of winter, they were attended by a great number
of persons who came to bid them an affectionate
farewell. The parting of the expatriated men and
their friends was solemn and characteristic, prayers
were said, and a psalm (the 23d), in which all who
were present joined, was sung.
On his arrival in France Mr. Welch immediately
commenced the study of the language of the country,
and such was his extraordinary diligence, and his
anxiety to make himself again useful, that he ac-
quired in the short space of fourteen weeks such a
knowledge of French as enabled him to preach in it.
This attainment was soon after followed by a call to
the ministry from a Protestant congregation at Nerac.
Here, however, he remained but for a short period,
being translated to St. Jean d'Angely, a fortified
town in Lower Charente, where he continued to
reside during the remainder of his stay in France,
which was upwards of fourteen years.