Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

recommence, with all its cost and uncertainty, and Morton was determined not to enter upon it on the old terms. Elizabeth was more interested than he was in maintaining the King. He at any time could make his own terms with the other party, and she was not any longer to reap the chief benefit, and pay nothing for it.

The Queen felt the weight of Morton's argument, and her behaviour under it was eminently characteristic. She wrote to him, expressing a sincere desire that he should take the Regency: she gave him in general terms the promise which he desired, and she empowered Killegrew to use the same language to the noblemen who were assembled for the election. She trusted that this would be enough, and she forbade Killegrew to commit her to anything more definite.

The nobles had received words enough already, and knew what they were worth. Both they and Morton insisted on a distinct statement of the degree of help on which they might rely, saying at the same time that if Killegrew would not give it, the election would be postponed.

expected of him, and did
He was to have appeared
Estates with the required

The envoy knew what was his duty like a loyal servant. before the Convention of the explanations, and he was well aware that they would be unsatisfactory. He put it off, therefore, till the day when the Regent was to be chosen, when Morton came for his answer; and 'because '-it was thus that he related his manœuvre to his mistress-' because I would keep the Earl of Morton in hope till the election was passed, I excused myself upon sickness, and desired his Lordship to bear with me for a day or two, assuring him that your Majesty had as great care of the King's welldoing and safety, and of himself in particular, as

[blocks in formation]

CHAP XXIII

1572 December

ever your Majesty had heretofore; with such like general speeches, tending all to encourage him to take upon himself the Regency. So he parted with me for that time, and I continued sick till the day after he was proclaimed Regent.'1

Great in her general attitude, great in her own heart and bearing at special moments of danger, Elizabeth could yet stoop to these poor tricks, which, after all, were not to serve her. The Regent,' Killegrew reported to Burghley, 'was a shrewd fellow.' When he found that he had been duped, he too affected a few days' illness to think over his position. He then told the English envoy that he could do nothing without money; the King's cause and his own life would both be in danger; and therefore, if the Queen's Majesty would not help him in that which of necessity he must have, and which should be as little as might be required with reason, he would renounce the regiment.'2

In the midst of these chicaneries, an event had taken place by the side of which they were doubly contemptible. The apostle of the Reformation had passed away -passed away, noble in death as in life, the one supremely great man that Scotland possessed-the one man without whom Scotland, as the modern world has known it, would have had no existence.

Shortly after Knox's last sermon, a paralytic stroke prostrated his remaining strength; he became unable to read, and for a day or two his mind was wandering. He recovered his senses, but only to know that the end was not far off; and still thinking of his country, and of his country's present trials, he sent for the elders of

1 Killegrew to Elizabeth, December 2.-MSS. Scotland.

2 Killegrew to Burghley, Jan. 1. -MSS. Scotland.

the Kirk, to charge them for the last time to be constant. His next anxiety was for Grange. Grange, who, as a boy, had shared in that forlorn enterprise at St. Andrews when Beton went to his account, was a person whom Knox had long loved and prized. In the last years, by some fatality, he had been led by Maitland into the ways of foolishness; beyond and beside the spiritual aspects of the matter, none knew better than Knox in which way the long obstinacy of the defenders of the Castle would end at last, and he made a final effort to save his old friend from destroying himself. 'Go,' he said to David Lindsay, a minister who came to his bedside, 'Go to yon man of the Castle. Tell him I warn him in the name of God to leave that evil cause, and give over the Castle. If not, he shall be brought down over the walls with shame and hung against the sun.'

Lindsay went as he was bidden and saw Grange, and 'somewhat moved him.' But he talked to Maitland, and Maitland turned the warning into ridicule. 'Go, tell Mr. Knox,' he said at last in answer, 'that he is but a drytting prophet.' 'Well, well,' said Knox, when the words were brought back to him, 'I have been earnest with my God anent they twa men. For the one, I am sorry that sa should befall him; yet God assures me there is mercy for his soul. For the other, I have na warrant that ever he shall be well.'

On the 17th of November the elders of the congregation came to his bed to receive his last instructions. He went over the chief incidents of the last year with them. 'He had done his best to instruct them,' he said, 'and if at any time he had spoken hardly, it was not from passion or ill-will, but only to overcome their faults. Now that he was going away, he could but charge them

CHAP XXIII

1572 November

CHAP XXIII

to remain true to make no compromise with evilespecially to yield in nothing to the Castle-rather to November fly with David to the mountains than remain at home in the company of the wicked.'

Two days later, the 19th, Morton came, and Ruthven and Glencairn; and to them he spoke at length, though what passed none ever knew. Afterwards some fine lady came to praise him,' to flatter him in a foolish way for the great things which he had done. 'Hush, hush!' he said, 'flesh is ower proud, and needs no means to esteem the self.'

He was rapidly going. On the 23rd he told the people who were about him that he had been meditating through the night on the troubles of the Kirk. He had been earnest in prayer with God for it. He had wrestled with Satan, and had prevailed. He repeated the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer, pausing after the first petition to say, 'Who can pronounce so holy words!' It was the day on which a fast had been appointed by the Convention for special meditation upon the massacre. After sermon, many eager persons came to his bedside, and, though his breath was coming thick and slow, he continued to speak in broken sentences.

The next morning the end was evidently close. He was restless, rose, half-dressed himself, and then, finding himself too weak to stand, sank back upon his bed. He was asked if he was in pain. He said 'it was no painful pain, but such as would end the battle.' Mrs. Knox read to him St. Paul's words on death. Unto Thy hand, O Lord,' he cried, 'for the last time, I commend my soul, spirit, and body.' At his own request she then read to him the 17th chapter of St. John's Gospel, where he told them he first cast anchor.

As night fell he seemed to sleep. The family assembled in his room for their ordinary evening prayers, and were the longer because they thought he was resting.' He moved as they ended. 'Sir, heard ye the prayers?' said one. 'I would to God,' he answered, 'that ye and all men heard them as I have heard them, and I praise God of the heavenly sound.' Then, with a long sigh, he said, 'Now it is come.' The shadow was creeping over him, and death was at hand. Bannatyne, his secretary, sprang to his side.

'Now, Sir,' he said, 'the time ye have long asked for -to wit, an end of your battle-is come; and, seeing all natural power fails, remember the promise which oftentimes ye have shown me of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and that we may understand ye hear us make us some sign.'

The dying man gently raised his head, and 'incontinent thereof, rendered up his spirit.'1

'There lies one,' said Morton, as, two days later, he stood to watch the coffin lowered into the grave,-'There lies one who never feared the face of mortal man.' Morton spoke only of what he knew: the full measure of Knox's greatness neither he nor any man could then estimate. It is as we look back over that stormy time, and weigh the actors in it one against the other, that he stands out in his full proportions. No grander figure can be found, in the entire history of the Reformation in this island, than that of Knox. Cromwell and Burghley rank beside him for the work which they effected, but, as politicians and statesmen, they had to labour with instruments which they soiled their hands in touching. In purity, in uprightness, in courage, truth,

1 Narrative of Richard Bannatyne.

CHAP XXIII

1572 November

« AnteriorContinuar »