nimbly remarked, "That though it was as I had said, yet
none of those men raised the sword against their princes;"--which
enforced me to be more subtle than I was minded to have been, and to
say, "that nevertheless, they did resist, for those who obey not the
commandments given them, do in verity resist." "Ay," cried her Highness,
"but not with the sword," which was a thrust not easy to be turned
aside, so that I was constrained to speak out, saying, "God, madam, had
not given them the means and the power." Then said she, still more
eagerly, "Think you that subjects, having the power, may resist their
princes?" And she looked with a triumphant smile, as if she had caught
me in a trap; but I replied, "If princes exceed their bounds, no doubt
they may be resisted, even by power. For no greater honour or greater
obedience is to be given to kings and princes than God has commanded to
be given to father or mother. But the father may be struck with a
frenzy, in which he would slay his children; in such a case, if the
children arise, join together, apprehend the father, take the sword from
him, bind his hands and keep him in prison till the frenzy be over,
think you, madam," quo' I, "that the children do any wrong? Even so is
it with princes that would slay the children of God that are subject to
them. Their blind zeal is nothing but frenzy, and therefore to take the
power from them till they be brought to a more sober mind, is no
disobedience to princes, but a just accordance to the will of God. So I
doubt not," continued the Reformer, "I shall again have to sustain the
keen encounter of her Highness' wit in some new controversy."

This was the chief substance of what my grandfather heard pass in the
boat; and when they were again mounted, the knight and preacher set
forward as before, some twenty paces or so in advance of the retinue.

On reaching Kinross, Master Knox rode straight to the shore, and went
off in the Queen's barge to the castle, that he might present himself to
her Highness before supper, for by this time the sun was far down. In
the meantime, my grandfather went to the house in Kinross where the Earl
of Murray resided, and his Lordship, though albeit a grave and reserved
man, received him with the familiar kindness of an old friend, and he
was with him when the Reformer came back from the Queen, who had dealt
very earnestly with him to persuade the gentlemen of the west country to
desist from their interrupti