hearted attempt to compromise himself as little as possible, he
was goaded into the most virulent use of his pen, and cut down his
adversaries with the sharp shafts of his _Franciscanus_ with a vigour
and malice which left nothing to be desired. The Court had its laugh
which was resounding and long, but neither King nor courtiers had any
penalty to pay for the pranks which the classical Samson wrought for
their pleasure.

Though they were thus mocked in high places, the Churchmen, however, had
lost none of their power, and even the protection of the royal household
did not avail the audacious poet. In the raid upon heretics which was
made in the beginning of the year 1539 Buchanan's name was included
among the guilty. He himself tells us that "Cardinal Beatoun bought his
life from the King with money": making it probably the price of some
concession that this audacious assailant should be delivered into the
hands of the Church. At all events the terrified scholar had no
confidence in the power or will of his Sovereign to protect him, and,
scared by the flames of various burnings which had taken place
throughout the kingdom, directed his best wits to finding a way of
safety. He escaped through a window while his keepers were asleep, some
say from the Castle of St. Andrews, some from that of Edinburgh. His own
account is more simple and goes into no detail. "He made his way into
England, eluding the guards set for him." But England was not more
secure than Scotland. The quick-witted fugitive found Henry VIII
impartially burning victims from both sides, on the same day at the same
stake, and considered this sublime indifference as still more dangerous
than the strife of Scotch affairs. "His old familiarity with the French,
and the singular hospitality of that nation," led him back to the city
which was then the favourite resort of all the Muses. When, however,
Buchanan arrived in Paris he found that his special enemy, Cardinal
Beatoun, had preceded him there as ambassador from King James, and,
alarmed by so dangerous a vicinity, he accepted at once an offer made to
him by Andrew Govra, one of his colleagues of former times, who had been
appointed to the charge of a college in Bordeaux, and removed thither
with the greatest expedition before his foe could be made aware of his
presence in Paris.

This was in the end of the year 1539, when Buchanan had attained the age
of thirty-three. His residence in the capital of the fam