Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/319

Rh and his associates in misfortune, sailed from Leith for France, after an imprisonment of many months' duration in the castles of Edinburgh and Blackness. So great was the public sympathy for these persecuted men, that, though the hour of their embarkation was as early as two o'clock of the morning, and that in the depth of winter, they were attended by a great number of persons who came to bid them an affectionate farewell. The parting of the expatriated men and their friends was solemn and characteristic, prayers were said, and a psalm, (the 23rd,) in which all who were present joined, was sung.

On his arrival in France, Mr Welch immediately commenced the study of the language of the country, and such was his extraordinary diligence, and his anxiety to make himself again useful, that he acquired, in the short space of fourteen weeks, such a knowledge of French as enabled him to preach in it This attainment was soon after followed by a call to the ministry from a protestant congregation at Nerac. Here, however, he remained but for a short. period, being translated to St Jean D'Angely, a fortified town in Lower Charente, where he continued to reside during the remainder of his stay in France, which was upwards of fourteen years.

While living at St Jean D'Angely, Mr Welch evinced, on an occasion which called for it, a degree of courage in the field not less remarkable than that which distinguished him in the pulpit. A war having broken out between Louis XIII. and his protestant subjects, the former besieged the town in person. During the siege Mr Welch not only exhorted the inhabitants to make a determined and vigorous resistance, but took his place upon the walls of the city, and assisted in serving the guns. When the town capitulated, which it finally did, in terms of a treaty entered into with the besiegers, the French monarch ordered that Mr Welch, who, with characteristic intrepidity, continued to preach, to be brought before him. The messenger whom he despatched for this purpose was the duke D'Espernon, who entered the church in which Mr Welch was at the moment preaching, with a party of soldiers to take him from the pulpit. On perceiving the duke enter, Mr Welch called out to him in a loud and authoritative tone to sit down and hear the word of God. The duke instinc- tively or unconsciously obeyed, and not only quietly awaited the conclusion of the sermon, but listened to it throughout with the greatest attention, and afterwards declared himself to have been much edified by it. On being brought into the presence of the king, the latter angrily demanded of Mr Welch how he had dared to preach, since it was contrary to the laws of the kingdom for such as he to officiate in places where the court resided. Mr Welch s reply was bold and characteristic. "Sir," he said, "if your majesty knew what I preached, you would not only come and hear it yourself, but make all trance hear it: for I preach not as those men you used to hear. First, I preach that vou must be saved by the merits of Jesus Christ, and not your own, (and I am sure your conscience tells you that your good works will never merit heaven:) next, I preach, that, as you are king of France, there is no man on ear above you; but these men whom you hear, subject you to the pope of Rome, which I will never do." This last remark was so exceedingly gratifying to the king, that it had the effect not only of disarming him of Ins wrath, but induced him to receive the speaker instantly into his royal favour. Very well, replied Louis, "you shall be my minister," and to these expressions of goc K he added an assurance of his protection, a pledge wh.ch he afterward amply redeemed. When St Jean D'Angely was again besieged by the French monarch in 1621, he ordered the captain of his guard to protect the house and property of his minister," and afterwards supplied him with horses and wagons