Spottiswoode Society > History of the affairs of the Church and State of Scotland from the beginning of the reformation to the year 1568 > Volume 1

108 THE HISTORY OF THE AFFAIRS [1540.
him, with respect to a certain business depending betwixt
them two, he departed with thoughts full of revenge, and
inveighed openly amongst his friends against the intolerable
pride of the Cardinal, insomuch that they entered into a
horrid design to take away his life.
The accomplices went early in the morning, on Saturday
the 29th of May, and expelled from the castle of St An-
drews all the servants and workmen, having first seized the
porter, and secured the gate. This was performed with so
little noise, that the Cardinal knew nothing of it till they
knocked at the chamber-door where he lay. Then he asked
— " Who was there f John Leslie made answer — " My name
is Leslie." " Which Leslie," said the Cardinal : " Is it Nor-
man V It was answered, that he must open to those that
were there. This answer made the Cardinal fear the worst,
and therefore he began to secure the door, and whilst they
were using force to make it open, he asked — " Will ye
save my life V John Leslie answered — " Perhaps we will."
" Nay," replied the Cardinal, " but swear unto me by God,
and I will open." To which John answered — " What was
said is unsaid," and then he called for fire to burn the
door ; upon which the Cardinal, after a promise given him,
as some relate, that no violence should be used, thought
fit to open the door, and then sat him down on a chair,
saying — " I am a priest, ye will not slay me." Howbeit
John Leslie smote him once or twice, as did likewise Peter
Carmichael ; but James Melville, a man, says Mr Knox,
in his account of this barbarous murder, of nature most
gentle and most modest, perceiving them both to be in choler,
said — " This work 1 and judgment of God, although it be
secret, ought to be done with greater gravity ;" and present-
ing to the Cardinal the point of his sword, said — " Repent
thee of thy former wicked life, but especially of the shedding
of the blood of that notable instrument of God, Mr George
Wishart ; which, albeit the flame of fire consumed before
men, yet cries it for vengeance upon thee, and we from God
are sent to revenge it : 2 for here, before my God, I protest
1 In the 8vo edition of Knox's History there is the following marginal
note, viz. " The godly fact and words <;/' James Melvim ." but in the 4to and
folio editions the word godly is suppressed by the editors.
2 Conformable to this enthusiastic notion, Mr Calderwood in his llistorv,