n Dundee were destroyed and sacked.[71] There was probably
another about St Andrews who, while the martyr was yet a boy, was called
in to attest a charter by the notorious friar Campbell in 1526. I will
not venture to affirm that, with all his gentleness, Wishart might not
have been tempted to maintain that violence and murderous intent--such
as Betoun had twice shown to get rid of him privately--might be lawfully
met and restrained by force, though even that is hardly in keeping with
all we know of his gentle ways; but we may be sure that had such
thoughts been cherished by him, he, like Knox, would have said this
openly, and not have engaged in any secret reprisals. As an outlawed man
he came down to Scotland under protection, and never seems to have
travelled in it save under protection; and so he was one of the last men
likely to be chosen for a secret mission to England. If anything more
than the able essay of the late Professor Weir in the 'North British
Review' for 1868 were needed to prove that the "pure lustre of the
martyr's fame is still unsullied," it seems to me to be supplied by
himself in his affecting address at the stake. "I beseech Thee, Father
of heaven! to forgive them that have of any ignorance, or else have of
any evil mind, _forged any lies_ upon me. I forgive them with all my
heart."[72] The cardinal was not ignorant of the volcano on which he was
sitting or of the plots that had been hatched against him; and he may
have suspected Wishart of being in the conspiracy. That may have been
the reason why he sent two friars to him to get his last confession,
and, when they failed to do so, allowed Wynram to go, as the reformer
had requested. Wynram, after hearing it, returned to the cardinal and
his abettors, and assured them that Wishart was innocent. This can only
refer to such a suspicion of conspiracy, not to the charge of heresy
which was confessed and acknowledged; and Mr Andrew Lang has failed as
completely as the cardinal in his laboured attempt to produce a tittle
of evidence against him.

[Sidenote: His Constancy.]

From the time of Wighton's attempt the reformer had a clearer view of
the perils which beset him, and a mournful conviction of the issue which
awaited him if he would not flinch or flee. By his success in Dundee the
rage of his adversaries was lashed into a fury which appalled his
friends in various districts; but none of these things moved him that he
might finish his course wit