en corrected for their faults. She broke with him finally; and Knox,
dismissed to the ante-chamber, found himself so solitary, though among
the ladies of the Court, that (as we have already seen) he attempted to
'procure the company of women' by moralisings which they too may have
found impressive rather than delightful.

From this point--June 1563--the history slopes steadily downwards.
Mary's ambition was still to be Queen of Spain. Messengers on the
subject went to Spain and came to Scotland. But her plans were secretly
counterworked by her old enemy Catherine de Medici, the French
Queen-mother, and Philip changed his mind continually. In December an
incident happened which shewed Knox's new position. A riot arose in the
Queen's absence between Catholics who wished to worship in her private
chapel and Protestants who wished to prevent or denounce it. The latter
were indicted for 'invading' the palace. Knox instantly wrote a letter
summoning the faithful to attend in a body along with them; and he was
cited to appear before the Queen in Council on a charge of 'convocation
of the lieges.' Once more he stood before Mary, but now it was at her
bar. Knox had the weakness of listening to gossip, especially as to what
his feminine adversaries said; and he records not only what he saw, that
'her pomp lacked one principal point, to wit, womanly gravity,' but also
that she was heard to observe--this time apparently in admirable
Scots--'Yon man gart me greet, and grat never tear himself. I will see
if I can gar him greet.' Knox absolutely refused to withdraw his letter
or to apologise for it: and though the Council did not desire to justify
his conduct, they heard with some sympathy his plea that Papists were
not good advisers of princes, being sons of him who was 'a murderer from
the beginning.' Lethington, the Secretary, conducted the prosecution,
and it was probably he who at this point remarked--

'You forget yourself: you are not now in the pulpit.'

'I am in the place,' said Knox--and again his word has become
memorable--'where I am demanded of conscience to speak the truth, and
therefore the truth I speak, impugn it whoso list.'

The votes were taken twice over; but the nobles steadily refused to find
Knox guilty, and 'that night there was neither dancing nor fiddling in
the palace.' During the whole of 1564, however, Knox and the General
Assembly were divided from the Protestant courtiers, who argued, with
perfect ju