ther record, except Calvin's
epithet of _suavissima_,[38] and her husband's repetition years after,
in his Last Will, of the 'benediction that their dearest mother left' to
her two sons, 'whereto, now as then, I from my troubled heart say,
Amen.'[39]

Four years passed, and Knox, still minister of Edinburgh, and now in his
fifty-ninth year, was seen riding home with a second wife, 'not like a
prophet or old decrepit priest as he was,' said his Catholic
adversaries, 'but with his bands of taffetie fastened with golden
rings.' The lady for whom he put on this state was Margaret Stewart, the
daughter of his friend Lord Ochiltree, and the same critics assure us
that 'by sorcery and witchcraft he did so allure that poor gentlewoman,
that she could not live without him.' Queen Mary was angry when she
heard of it, because the bride 'was of the blood,' _i.e._ related to the
Royal house; and even Knox's friends did not like his union at that age
with a girl of seventeen. Young Mrs Knox seems, however, to have played
her part well, especially as mother of three daughters; she tended their
father carefully in his last illness; and no one will regret that two
years after his death she made a more suitable marriage as to years with
Andrew Ker of Faudonside, one of the fierce band whose daggers had
clashed ten years before in the body of David Rizzio.

Knox's liking for feminine society, and his suspicion that he had more
qualifications for it than the world has believed, come out sometimes in
a casual way. After one of his famous interviews with Queen Mary, he was
ordered to wait her pleasure in the ante-room.

'The said John stood in the chamber, as one whom men had never
seen (so were all afraid), except that the Lord Ochiltree bare
him company; and therefore began he to _forge_ talking of the
ladies who were there sitting in all their gorgeous apparel;
which espied, he merrily said, "O fair ladies, how pleasing were
this life of yours if it should ever abide, and then in the end
that we might pass to heaven with all this gay gear. But fye
upon that knave Death, that will come whether we will or not!
And when he has laid on his arrest, the foul worms will be busy
with this flesh, be it never so fair and so tender; and the
silly soul, I fear, shall be so feeble, that it can neither
carry with it gold, garnassing, targetting, pearl, nor precious
stones." And by such means _procu