the ambassadors or messengers of a king and council greater than they, and far above them. Then loosing a little Hebrew bible from his belt, and throwing it on the table before them, he said, "That you may see your weakness, oversight, and rashness, in taking upon you that which neither you ought nor can do, there are my instructions and warrant. Let me see which of you can judge of them or control me therein, that I have passed by my injunctions." Arran, finding the book in Hebrew, put it into the king's hands, saying, " Sir, he scorns your majesty and council." "No, my lord", replied Melville, " I scorn not, but with all earnestness, zeal, and gravity, I stand for the cause of Jesus Christ and his church." Not being able to prove the charge against him, and unwilling to let him go, the council declared him guilty of declining their jurisdiction, and of behaving irreverently before them, and sentenced him to be imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh, and to be further punished in his person and goods at the pleasure of the king. Before, however, being charged to enter himself in ward, his place of confinement was ordered to be changed to Blackness Castle, which was kept by a dependant of Arran. While at dinner the king's macer was admitted and gave him the charge to enter within 24 hours: but he avoided being sent there by secretly withdrawing from Edinburgh. After staying some time at Berwick, he proceeded to London, and in the ensuing July visited the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, at both of which he was received in a manner becoming his learning and reputation. From England to St Andrews He returned to Scotland in November 1585 after an absence of twenty months, and in March 1586 resumed his lectures in St Andrews, where he continued for twenty years; he became rector of the University in 1590. On the disgrace of the earl of Arran, Melville returned to Scotland with the banished lords, in November 1585. Having assisted in re-organising the college of Glasgow, he resumed, in the following March, his duties at St. Andrews. The synod of Fife, which met in April, proceeded to excommunicate Patrick Adamson, Archbishop of St. Andrews, for his attempts to overturn the presbyterian form of government in the church; and, in return, that prelate issued a