513 While living at St. Jean d'Angely, Mr. Welch evinced, on an occasion which called for it, a degree of courage in the field not less remarkable than that which distinguished him in the pulpit. A war having broken out between Louis XIII. and his Protestant subjects, the former besieged the town in person. During the siege Mr. Welch not only ex- horted the inhabitants to make a determined and vigorous resistance, but took his place upon the walls of the city, and assisted in serving the guns. When the town capitulated, which it finally did, in terms of a treaty entered into with the besiegers, the French monarch ordered Mr. Welch, who, with characteristic intrepidity continued to preach, to be brought before him. The messenger whom he des- patched for this purpose was the Duke d'Espernon, who entered the church in which Mr. Welch was at the moment preaching, with a party of soldiers to take him from the pulpit. On perceiving the duke enter, Mr. Welch called out to him in a loud and authoritative tone to sit down and hear the word of God. The duke instinctively or unconsciously obeyed, and not only quietly awaited the conclusion of the sermon, but listened to it throughout with the great- est attention, and afterwards declared himself to have been much edified by it. On being brought into the presence of the king, the latter angrily demanded of Mr. Welch how he had dared to preach, since it was contrary to the laws of the kingdom for such as he to officiate in places where the court resided. Mr. Welch's reply was bold and characteristic. "Sir," he said, "if your majesty knew what I preached, you would not only come and hear it yourself, but make all France hear it; for I preach not as those men you used to hear. First, I preach that you must be saved by the merits of Jesus Christ, and not your own (and I am sure your conscience tells you that your good works will never merit heaven): next, I preach that, as you are king of France, there is no man on earth above you; but these men whom you hear subject you to the pope of Rome, which I will never do." This last remark was so exceedingly gratifying to the king, that it had the effect not only of disarming him of his wrath, but induced him to receive the speaker instantly into his royal favour. "Very well," replied Louis, "you shall be my minister;" and to these expressions of good-will he added an assurance of his protection, a pledge which he afterwards amply redeemed. When St. Jean D'Angely was again besieged by the French monarch in 1621, he ordered the captain of his guard to protect the house and property of "his minister," and afterwards supplied him with horses and waggons to transport his family to Rochelle, whither he removed on the capture of the town. Mr. Welch was at this period seized with an illness which his physicians declared could be removed only by his returning to breathe the air of his native country. Under these circumstances he ventured, in 1622, to come to London, hoping that when there he should be able to obtain the king's permission to proceed to Scotland. This request, however, James, dreading Welch's influence, absolutely refused. Among those, and they were many, who interceded with the king in behalf of the dying divine, was his wife. On obtaining access to James the following extraordinary, but highly characteristic conversation, as recorded by Dr. M'Crie in his Life of Knox, took place between the intrepid daughter of the stern reformer and the eccentric monarch of England: His majesty asked her, who was her father. She replied, "Mr. Knox." "Knox and Welch," exclaimed he, "the devil never made such a match as that." "It's right like, sir," said she, "for we never speired his VOL. III. advice." He asked her how many children her father had left, and if they were lads or lasses. She said three, and they were all lasses. "God be thanked!" cried the king, lifting up both his hands, "for an they had been three lads, I had never bruicked my three kingdoms in peace." She again urged her request that he would give her husband his native air. "Give him his native air!" replied the king. "Give him the devil!" a morsel which James had often in his mouth. "Give that to your hungry cour- tiers," said she, offended at his profaneness. He told her at last, that if she would persuade her husband to submit to the bishops, he would allow him to return to Scotland. Mrs. Welch, lifting up her apron and holding it towards the king, replied, in the true spirit of her father, "Please your majesty, I'd rather kep his head there." Although James would not permit Mr. Welch to return to Scotland, he was prevailed upon by the friends of the latter, though not without much im- portunity, to allow him to preach in London. They had entreated this as an alternative in the event of his refusing him permission to return to his native country, and they eventually succeeded in obtaining from James a reluctant consent. On learning that this indulgence had been granted him, the dying preacher, for his complaint was rapidly gaining ground upon him, hastened to avail himself of it. He appeared once more in the pulpit, preached a long and pathetic sermon; but it was his last. When he had concluded his discourse he returned to his lodging, and in two hours afterwards expired, in the 53d year of his age. It is said that Mr. Welch's death was occasioned by an ossification of the limbs, brought on by much kneeling in his frequent and long-protracted devotional exercises. Like many of the eminently pious and well-meaning men of the times in which he lived, Mr. Welch laid claim to the gift of prescience, and his life, as it appears in the Scots Worthies, compiled by Howie of Lochgoin, presents a number of instances of the successful exercise of this gift; but no one now who has any sincere respect for the memory of such truly worthy persons and sincere Christians as Mr. Welch, can feel much gratified by seeing him invested, by a mis- taken veneration, with an attribute which does not belong to humanity. WELLWOOD, SIR HENRY MONCRIEFF, BA- RONET, D.D., an eminent divine, was born at Black- ford near Stirling, in February 1750. He was the eldest son of Sir William Moncrieff, Bart., minister of the parish just named; a man of singular merits and virtues, and who possessed an influence over his parishioners and in the surrounding country which these alone could bestow. The subject of this memoir was destined from an early age, as well by his own choice as the desire of his father, to the clerical profession; and with this view he repaired to the university of Glasgow, after completing an initiatory course of education at the parochial school of Blackford. Having given a due attendance on the literary and philosophical classes in the university, Sir Henry entered on the study of theology, in which he made a progress that raised the highest hopes of his future eminence; and these hopes were not disappointed. About this period he had the misfortune to lose his venerable father, who sank into a premature grave: but the esteem in which that good man was held did not die with him. All those who had any influence in the appointment of a successor to his charge, unanimously resolved that his son should be that person; and further, that as he had not yet attained the age at which he could, 103