Page:Life of John Knox (2).pdf/18

18 Edinburgh was very critical in the month of April, 1571, when Grange received the Hamiltons and their forces into the castle. Their inveteracy against him was so great, that his house required to be watched during the night. He often received intimations threatening his life, and one evening he was fired at through the window, but he happened to be in a different part of the house from that in which he usually sat, otherwise the ball must have struck him. Alarmed by this circumstance, a number of his friends waited on him, and renewed a request they formerly made, that he would remove to a place where his life would be in greater safety ; but he refused to listen to them, under the impression that his enemies wished to intimidate him to fight, that they might the more easily carry on their designs, and then accuse him of cowardice. Being unable to persuade him by any other means, they intimated their determination to defend him at the peril of their lives, and if blood was shed in the quarrel, they would leave it on his head. On hearing this, he consented to leave the city, "sure against his will," and, on the 5th of May, he left Edinburgh for St. Andrews, where he remained till the month of August following. During his stay, he published a vindication of the Reformed religion, in reply to a letter written by Tyrie, a Scots Jesuit. The work was sent abroad as a farewell address to the world, and a testimony to the truth which he so long taught and defended. In concluding it he says: “Call for me, deir brethren, that God, in his mercy, will pleas to put end to my long and paneful battell. For now being unable to fight, as God sumtymes gave strength, I thrist an end, befoir I be moir troublesum to the faithfull. And yet, Lord, let my desyre be moderat be thy Holy Spirit. To thee, O Lord, I commend my spirit. For I thrist to be released from this body of sin, and am assured that I