272 THE PORTRAITS OF JOHN KNOX. Knox many times lovingly celebrates the young Protestant King, and almost venerates him, as one clearly sent of God for the benefit of tbese realms, and of all good men there ; regarding his early death as a heavy punishment for the sins of the people. It was on the 6th July 1553 that Edward died ; and in the course of that same year Knox with many other Protestants, clergy and laity, had to leave England, to avoid the too evident intentions of Bloody Mary, so soon culminating in her fires of Smithfield and marriage with Philip II. Knox seems to have lingered to the very last ; his friends, he says, had to beseech him with tears, almost to force him away. He was leaving many that were dear to him, and to whom he was dear ; amongst others Marjory Bowes, who (by the earnest resolution of her mother) was now betrothed to him; and his ulterior course was as dark and desolate as it could well be. From Dieppe, where he first landed on crossing the Channel, he writes much of his heartfelt grief at the dismal condition of affairs in England, truly more afflicting than that of native Scotland itself; and adds on one occasion, with a kind of sparkle
