276 THE PORTRAITS OF JOHN KNOX. tlon and their cause did. In about two years or less, after manifold vicissitudes, it turned out that it was not Knox and his cause, but Queen Regent Mary and hers that had to go. After this Knox had at least no more Avanderings and joumeyings abroad *in sore
- trouble of heart, whither God knoweth ' ; though for
the twelve years that remained, there was at home abundant labour and trouble, till death in 1572 delivered him. With regard to his First Blast against the monstrous^ Regiment of Women (to which there never was any- Second, though that and even a Third were con- fidently purposed by its author), it may certainly be- called the least 'successful' of all Knox's writings. Offence, and that only, was what it gave to his silent friends, much more to his loudly condemnatory enemies, on its first appearance ; and often enough afterwards it re-emerged upon him as a serious ob- jstacle in his affairs, — mtness Queen Elizabeth, main- stay of the Scottish Reformation itself, who never coiald forgive him for that Blast. And now, beyond all Oifcher writings of Knox, it is faUen obsolete both in xaann^r and in purport, to every modem mind. Un-
