e with another, and the minds of the commons yet in a
ferment, upon the account of their civil combustions. Whereupon he
returned into France, about the time that the siege of Metz was raised.
There he was in a manner compelled by his friends to write a poem
concerning that siege; which he did, though somewhat unwillingly,
because he was loth to interfere with several of his acquaintances, and
especially with Mellinus Sangelasius, who had composed a learned and
elegant poem on that subject. From thence he was called over into Italy,
by Charles de Cosse of Brescia, who then managed matters with very good
success in the Gallic and Ligustic countries about the Po. He lived with
him and his son Timoleon, sometimes in Italy, and sometimes in France,
the space of five years, till the year 1560; the greatest part of which
time he spent in the study of the holy scriptures, that so he might be
able to make a more exact judgment of the controversies in religion,
which employed the thoughts, and took up all the time of most of the men
of these days. It is true, these disputes were silenced a little in
Scotland, when that kingdom was freed from the tyranny of the Guises of
France; so he returned thither, and became a member of the church of
Scotland, 1560[37].

Some of his writings, in former times, being, as it were, redeemed from
shipwreck, were by him collected and published: the rest, which were
scattered up and down in the hands of his friends, he committed to the
disposal of providence[38]. After his return, he professed philosophy in
St. Andrews, and in the year 1565, he was appointed tutor to James VI.
king of Scotland; and in 1568, went with the regent to the court of
England, at which time and place he did no small honour to his country.

Sir James Melvil, in his memoirs, page 234, gives him the following
character.--"He was a Stoic philosopher, who looked not far before him;
too easy in his old age; somewhat revengeful against those who had
offended him:" But notwithstanding, "a man of notable endowments, great
learning, and an excellent Latin poet; he was much honoured in foreign
countries; pleasant in conversation, into which he happily introduced
short moral maxims, which his invention readily supplied him with upon
any emergency. He was buried at Edinburgh in the common place, though
worthy to have been laid in marble, as in his life pompous monuments he
used to contemn and despise."

_The Life of Mr. ROBER