addressed by James Melville, from his sick-bed, to the Synod of
Fife, in regard to the articles in which the King claimed supremacy in
ecclesiastical affairs. '"I hard, Mr. James Melvill," said the King,
"that ye wreitt a Lettre to the Synod of Fyff at Cowper, quhairin was
meikle of Chryst, but lytle guid of the King. Be God I trow ye wes
reavand or mad (for he spak so) ye speek utherwayis now. Now, wes that a
charitabill judgment of me?"--"Sir," says Mr. James, with a low
courtessie, "I wes baith seik and sair in bodie quhan I wreit that
Lettre, bot sober and sound in mind. I wreit of your Majestie all guid,
assureing my selff and the Bretherine that thais Articles quhairoff a
copy cam in my handis could not be from your Majestie, they wer so
strange; and quhom sould I think, speik, or wryt guid of, if not of your
Majestie, quho is the man under Chryst quhom I wisch most guid and
honour unto."'

At the consultation held among the brethren in regard to the points
raised, they decided that when the conference was resumed they would
give their answer through one of their number; and that, as to the first
question before them, they would decline, for reasons which we need not
rehearse, to give any judgment on the Aberdeen Assembly. Meanwhile,
however, the King had resolved that each of the ministers should answer
the questions for himself, in the hope that their answers would prove
conflicting, and so give him an advantage.

At the second conference there were present the members of the English
Council, the most eminent of the prelates, and the most illustrious of
the nobles. On the King's right hand sat the Primate, with many of
England's proudest earls and all the great ministers of state; on his
left the young Prince Henry, with the Scottish nobles and councillors;
behind the arras several other nobles and bishops were gathered. In the
midst of the assemblage stood the eight Scottish ministers, unabashed by
the glitter of rank and royalty--plain men decorated with no honours,
but in intellect and dignity of character the peers of the best in that
company; and to the crowd of courtiers gathered that day in the Council
Hall of England they taught a lesson in one of the duties owing to a
sovereign which few courtiers have practised--the duty of telling him
the truth.

The subject of conference was, as we have said, the conduct of the
ministers who had held the Assembly in Aberdeen. The first to be asked
their opinion b