libri duo regia in ara, Lumina casca duo, pollubra sicca duo? Num sensum cultumque Dei tenet Anglia clausum, Lumine exca suo, sorde sepulta sua? Romano an ritu, dum regalem instruit aram, Purpuream pingit religiosa lupam ? Thus rendered in an old translation: Why stand there on the altar high Two closed books, blind lights, two basins dry? Doth England hold God's mind and worship close. Blind of her sight, and buried in her dross? Doth she, with chapel put in Romish dress, The purple whore religiously express? And for this Melville was sent to the tower. At first he was treated with the utmost rigour, and denied even the use of pen, ink, and paper; but his spirit remained unsubdued, and he beguiled his solitary hours by composing Latin verses, which, with the tongue of his shoe buckle, he engraved on his prison walls. By the interference of some friends at court, his confinement was, after the lapse of nearly ten months, rendered less severe. About the end of 1607 the Protestants of Rochelle endeavoured to obtain his services as professor of divinity in their college, but the king would not consent to his liberation. Freed to France At length, in February 1611, at the intercession of the duke of Bouillon, he was released from confinement, on condition of his becoming professor of theology in the Protestant university of Sedan, in France, where he spent the remainder of his life, and died there in 1622, at the advanced age of 77. On being freed, but refused permission to return to his own country, he was invited to fill a professor's chair in the Academy of Sedan, and there he spent the last eleven years of his life. Personal life His biographer, Dr. M'Crie, says that Andrew Melville "was the first Scotsman who added a taste for elegant literature to an extensive acquaintance with theology." Although he sustained a conspicuous part in all the important public transactions of his time, he neither was nor affected to be the leader of a party. In private he was an agreeable companion, remarkable for his cheerfulness and kindliness of disposition. He was never married. Beyond the statement that he was of low stature there is no description of his personal appearance extant, nor is there any known portrait of him. The greater part of his writings consists of Latin poems. Dr. M'Crie, whose Life