he
town. The clouds rose thicker and filled the whole air. Shouts and
cries, as he drew near, were mingled with the crash of falling edifices.
The earth trembled, and his horse stood still, regardless of the rowels,
as if it had seen the angel of the Lord standing in his way. On all
sides monks and nuns came flying from the town, wringing their hands as
if the horrors of the last judgment had surprised them in their sins.
The guards of the Archbishop were scattered among them like chaff in the
swirl of the wind: then his Grace came himself on Sir David Hamilton's
fleet mare, with Sir David and divers of his household fast following.
The wrath of heaven was behind them, and they rattled past my
grandfather like the distempered phantoms that hurry through the dreams
of dying men.

My grandfather's horse at last obeyed the spur, and he rode on and into
the city, the gates of which were deserted. There he beheld on all sides
that the Lord had indeed put the besom of destruction into the hands of
the Reformers; and that not one of all the buildings which had been
polluted by the papistry--no, not one--had escaped the erasing
fierceness of its ruinous sweep. The presence of the magistrates lent
the grace of authority to the zeal of the people, and all things were
done in order. The idols were torn down from the altars, and
deliberately broken by the children with hammers into pieces. There was
no speaking; all was done in silence; the noise of the falling churches,
the rending of the shrines, and the breaking of the images were the only
sounds heard. But for all that, the zeal of not a few was, even in the
midst of their dread solemnity, alloyed with covetousness. My
grandfather himself saw one of the town-council slip the bald head, in
silver, of one of the twelve apostles into his pouch.

CHAPTER XXV

The triumph of the truth at St Andrews was followed by the victorious
establishment, from that day thenceforward, of the Reformation in
Scotland. The precautions taken by the deep forecasting mind of the Lord
James Stuart, through the instrumentality of my grandfather and others,
were of inexpressible benefit to the righteous cause. It was foreseen
that the Queen Regent, who had come to Falkland, would be prompt to
avenge the discomfiture of her sect, the papists; but the zealous
friends of the Gospel, seconding the resolution of the Lords of the
Congregation, enabled them to set all her power at defiance.

With a