the better for his distinguished attentions.

On August 17, during a truce between the hostile parties, Knox left St.
Andrews for Edinburgh, "not without dolour and displeasure of the few
godly that were in the town, but to the great joy and pleasure of the
rest;" for, "half dead" as he was, Knox had preached a political sermon
every Sunday, and he was in the pulpit at St. Giles's on the last Sunday
of August. {269a} As his colleague, Craig, had disgusted the brethren by
his moderation and pacific temper, a minister named Lawson was appointed
as Knox's coadjutor.

Late in August came the news of the St. Bartholomew massacre (August 24).
Knox rose to the occasion, and, preaching in the presence of du Croc, the
French ambassador, bade him tell his King that he was a murderer, and
that God's vengeance should never depart from him or his house. {269b}
The prophecy was amply fulfilled. Du Croc remonstrated, "but the Lords
answered they could not stop the mouths of ministers to speak against
themselves."

There was a convention of Protestants in Edinburgh on October 20, but
lords did not attend, and few lairds were present. The preachers and
other brethren in the Assembly proposed that all Catholics in the realm
should be compelled to recant publicly, to lose their whole property and
be banished if they were recalcitrant, and, if they remained in the
country, that all subjects should be permitted, lawfully, to put them to
death. ("To invade them, and every one of them, to the death.") {269c}
This was the ideal, embodied in law, of the brethren in 1560. Happily
they were not permitted to disgrace Scotland by a Bartholomew massacre of
her own.

Mr. Hume Brown thinks that these detestable proposals "if not actually
penned by Knox, must have been directly inspired by him." He does not,
however, mention the demand for massacre, except as "pains and penalties
for those who _preached_ the old religion." {269d} "Without exception of
persons, great or small," _all_ were to be obliged to recant, or to be
ruined and exiled, or to be massacred. Dr. M'Crie does not hint at the
existence of these articles, "to be given to the Regent and Council."
They included a very proper demand for the reformation of vice at home.
Certainly Knox did not pen or dictate the Articles, for none of his
favourite adjectives occurs in the document.

At this time Elizabeth, Leicester, and Cecil desired to hand over Queen
Mary to Mar, the Regent, "