For here, before the Almighty, I protest that it is neither hatred of thy person, nor love of thy riches, nor fear of thy power, which moves me to seek thy death; but only because thou hast been, and still remainest, an obstinate enemy to Christ Jesus and his holy gospel." Having spoken these words, without giving Beatoun time to finish that repentance to which he exhorted him, he thrust him through the body; and the cardinal fell dead at his feet.[*] This murder was executed on the twenty-eighth of May, 1546.

The assassins, being reenforced by their friends to the number of a hundred and forty persons, prepared themselves for the defence of the castle, and sent a messenger to London craving assistance from Henry.

That prince, though Scotland was comprehended in his peace with France, would not forego the opportunity of disturbing the government of a rival kingdom; and he promised to take them under his protection.
* The famous Scotch reformer, John Knox, calls James Melvil (p.

65) a man most gentle and most modest.

It is very horrid, but at the same time somewhat amusing, to consider the joy, and alacrity, and pleasure which that historian discovers in his narrative of this assassination; and it is remarkable, that in the first edition of his work, these words were printed in the margin of the page: "The godly Fact and Words of James Melvil." But the following editors retrenched them.