262 THE PORTRAITS OF JOHN KNOX. He arrived there with his pupils 10 April 1547 ; and was before long, against his will or expectation, drawn into a height of notability in public affairs, from which he never rested more while his life lasted, — two and twenty years of such labours and perils as no other Scottish man went through in that epoch, till death set him free. Beaton's body was already for the last nine or ten months lying salted in the sea-tower otihliette, waiting some kind of Christian burial. The * Siege ' had dwindled into plain impotency of loose blockade, and even to pretence of treaty on the Eegent's part. Knox and his pupils were in safety in castle and town ; and Knox tells us that * he began to exercise 'them' (his pupils) * after his accustomed manner. 'Besides grammar, and other humane authors, he 'read unto them a catechism, account whereof he
- caused them give publicly in the parish Kirk of St.
' Andrews. He read moreover unto them the Evangel ' of John, proceeding where he left at his departing
- from Langniddry, where before his residence was ;
- and that Lecture he read in the chapel, within the
'castle at a certain hour. They of the place, but
