been to me,
I wad have keepit the Border side
In spite of all thy force and thee.'

Melville did not expect any other result, although he had been told that
the King seemed favourably disposed towards him. He knew his man:
'_Fronti nulla fides_' was, he said, a proverb often in his mind at that
time. Soon after writing this ode to the King, he, for the same purpose,
submitted an apology to the Privy Council for any offence he had given
by the epigram which had cost him his liberty; but it also failed. In
this matter Archbishop Spotswood played a double part, advising Melville
to send the apology, while he and his brother-prelate, Archbishop
Gledstanes, were doing all they could to prevent the King restoring
Melville and the other exiled ministers to liberty. Melville was no more
disappointed with Spotswood's conduct than he had been with the King's:
'_Sed non ego credulus illis_.'

All his trials and long vexations did not dim his hopefulness; of no
man might it be said more truly that he

'Never doubted clouds would break.'

'Away with fear--I will cherish the hope of everything that is cheering
and joyous.... I betake myself to my sacred anchor--"Seek ye first the
Kingdom of God"'--so he wrote from the Tower.

For some time a son of James Melville who bore his uncle's name, and
another nephew, lodged with Melville in the Tower; and he had many
distinguished visitors, such as Isaac Casaubon and Bishop Hall of
Norwich, who were proud to be numbered among his friends. Another
illustrious victim of the King's treachery, one of the many of England's
noblest sons who stepped from the Tower into immortality, Sir Walter
Raleigh, was a fellow-prisoner of Melville. Did they ever meet? We would
give much to know that they did; it would be pleasant to think of so
rare a conjunction of spirits. Melville found his greatest solace,
however, in his nephew's devotion. There was no ministry of love which
James Melville failed to render to his uncle; and very touching in their
tenderness are the letters which passed between the two. He was also
much moved by the tokens of remembrance he received from old
friends--comrades in the battles of the Church--and from their children.
Acknowledging a gift of money which had been partly contributed by a
family of a deceased brother in the ministry, he says: 'I received the
Spanish and British angels, equalling in number the Apostles, the
Graces, and the Elements, with a supernum