would seem, as Captain of Hs Body-guard. For it is marked as a fact that the monstrous Cardinal Beaton had in this case appointed a specific assassin, a devil- serving Priest, to track Wishart diligently in these joumeyings about of his, which were often nocturnal and opportune for such a thing, and, the sooner the better, do him to death; and on the one clear glimpse allowed us of Knox, it was he that carried the * two- handed sword' provided for Wishart's safety against such chances. This assassin project against Wishart is probably the origin of Beza's notion about Beaton's intention to assassinate Knox; who was at this time far below the notice of such a high mightiness, and in all probability had never been heard of by him. Knox had been privately a most studious, thoughtful, and intelligent man for long years, but was hitherto, though now in his forty-first year, known only as tutor to the three sons of Langniddry and Ormiston {' Langudrius and Hamestonwn '); and did evidently carry the two-handed sword, on the last occasion on which it could have availed in poor Wishart's case. Knox's account of Wishart, written down hastily twenty years after, in his History of the Reformation,
