131
ambassador to France, and landed on the coast of
Brittany. The bishop, proceeding by post to Paris,
left his young protege to the attendance of "twa
young Scottis gentlemen," who were instructed to
be careful of him on the way, and to provide him
with the necessary expenses, which should be after-
wards refunded to them. The three young men
bought a nag each, and afterwards fell into company
with three additional companions, a Frenchman, a
Spaniard, and a native of Bretagne—all travelling in
the same direction. At the end of their first day's
journey from Brest they all took up their night's rest
in a chamber containing three beds. The two French-
men and the two Scotsmen slept together. Melville
was accompanied by the Spaniard. In this situation
he discovered himself to be the subject of plot and
counterplot. He first heard the Scotsmen—with
much simplicity certainly, when it is remembered
that a countryman was within hearing—observe, that
as the bishop had directed them to purvey for their
companion, "therefore we will pay for his ordinair
all the way, and sall compt up twice as meikle to
his master when we come to Paris, and so sall won
our own expenses."1 This was a good solid discreet
speculation, but it need not have been so plainly
expressed. While it was hatching, the Frenchmen
in the next bed were contemplating a similar plot,
on the security of the ignorance of the French tongue
on the part of their companions, and their inexperi-
ence of French travelling, proposing simply to pay
the tavern bills themselves, and charge a handsome
premium "sufficient to pay their expenses" for their
trouble. Melville says he could not refrain "laugh-
ing in his mind." The Frenchmen he easily managed,
but the Scotsmen were obdurate, insisting on their
privilege of paying his charges, and he found his only
recourse to be a separate enumeration of the charges,
and the "louns" never obtained payment of their
overcharge. But the Frenchmen were resolved by
force to be revenged on the detector of their cunning.
In the middle of a wood they procured two bullies
to interrupt and attack the travellers, and when
Melville and his friends drew, they joined their hired
champions. But Melville, by his own account, was
never discomfited, and when they saw their "coun-
tenance and that they made for defence," they pre-
tended it was mere sport. Melville informs us how,
after his arrival at Paris, his friend the bishop was
called to Rome, and himself left behind to learn to
play upon the lute and to write French. In the
month of May, 1553, Melville appears to have dis-
connected himself from the bishop, of whom he gives
some curious notices touching his proficiency in the
art magique and mathematique, and came into the
service of the Constable of France—an office in the
acquisition of which he was much annoyed by the
interference of a Captain Ringan Cocburn, "a busy
medlar." At this point in his progress the narrator
stops to offer up thanks for his good fortune. As a
pensioner of France he became attached to the cause
of that country in the war with Charles V., and was
present at the siege of St. Quentin, where his patron
the constable was wounded and taken prisoner, and
himself "being evil hurt with a stroke of a mass
[mace] upon the head, was mounted again by his
servant upon a Scots gelding, that carried him home
through the enemies who were all between him and
home; and two of them struck at his head with
swords, because his head-piece was tane off after the
first rencounter that the mass had enforced, and
the two were standing between him and home, to
keep prisoners in a narrow strait;" but Melville's
1 Memoirs, p. 13, partially modernized in orthography.
horse ran between them "against his will," as he
candidly tells, and saved his master by clearing a
wall, after which he met his friend Harry Killigrew,
who held the steed while its master entered a barber's
shop to have his wounds dressed. Melville appears
to have attended the constable in his captivity, and
along with him was present at the conference of
Chateau Cambresis, the consequence of which he
states to be "that Spayne obtained all their desires:
the constable obtained liberty: the Cardinal of Lor-
raine could not mend himself, no more than the
commissioners of England." After the peace the
king, at the instigation of the constable, formed the
design of sending Melville to Scotland to negotiate
its terms with reference to this country, and to check
the proceedings of Moray, then prior of St. Andrews,
and the rising influence of the Lords of the Congre-
gation. The Cardinal of Lorraine, however, had
influence sufficient to procure this office for Monsieur
De Buttoncourt, a person whose haughty manner,
backed with the designs of the "holy alliance" he
represented, served to stir up the flame he was sent
to allay; and the more prudent Melville, whose birth
and education certainly did not qualify him to con-
duct such a mission with vigour, or even integrity
to his employers, was sent over with instructions
moderate to the ear, but strong in their import. A
war for mere religion was however deprecated; the
constable shrewdly observing, that they had enough
to do in ruling the consciences of their own country-
men, and must leave Scotsmen's souls to God. Mel-
ville was instructed "to seem only to be there for
to visit his friends." He found the queen-regent in
the old tower of Falkland, in bitterness of spirit from
the frustration of her ambitious designs. Quietly
and stealthily the emissary acquired his secret infor-
mation. The ostensible answer he brought with
him to France was that the prior of St. Andrews did
not aspire to the crown; a matter on which the
bearings were probably sufficiently known at the
court of France without a mission. Such, however,
is the sum of what he narrates as his answer to the
constable, who exhibited great grief that the accidental
death of Henry, which had intervened, and his own
dismission, prevented a king and prime minister of
France from reaping the fruit of Melville's cheering
intelligence. Scotsmen becoming at that time un-
popular in France, Melville obtained the royal per-
mission to travel through other parts of the Conti-
nent. With recommendations from his friend the
constable, he visited the court of the elector-palatine,
where he was advised to remain and learn the German
tongue, and was courteously received. At the death
of Francis II. he returned to France as a messenger
of condolence for the departed, and congratulation
to the successor, from the court of the palatine. He
returned to the palatine with "a fair reward, worth
a thousand crowns;" whether to the palatine or
himself, is not clear. When Melville perceived
Queen Mary about to follow the advice of those who
recommended her return to Scotland, he called on
her with the offer of his "most humble and dutiful
service;" and the queen gave him thanks for the
opinions she heard of his affection towards her service,
and desired him, when he should think fit to leave
Germany, to join her service in Scotland. The
Cardinal of Lorraine, among his other projects,
having discovered the propriety of a marriage be-
twixt Mary and the Archduke Charles of Austria,
brother to Maximilian, Melville was deputed by
secretary Maitland to discover what manner of man
this Charles might happen to be; to inquire as to
his religion, his rents, his qualities, his age, and
stature. Melville had a very discreet and confiden-