plague
broken out in Ayr, which accordingly came to pass.

The plague was at that time very terrible, and he being necessarily
separate from his people, it was to him the more grievous; but when the
people of Ayr came to him to bemoan themselves, his answer was, that
Hugh Kennedy, a godly gentleman in their town, should pray for them, and
God should hear him. This counsel they accepted, and the gentleman
conveening a number of the honest citizens, prayed earnestly for the
town, as he was a mighty wrestler with God, and accordingly after that
the plague decreased.

Now the time is come when he must leave Scotland, and never to see it
again. So upon the 7th of November 1606, in the morning he with his
neighbours took ship at Leith, and though it was but two o'clock in the
morning, many were waiting on with their afflicted families, to bid them
farewel[51]. After prayer, they sung the 23d psalm, and so to the great
grief of the spectators, set sail for the south of France, and landed in
the river of Bourdeaux. Within fourteen weeks after his arrival, such
was the Lord's blessing upon his diligence, he was able to preach in
French, and accordingly was speedily called to the ministry, first in
one village, then in another; one of them was Nerac, and thereafter was
settled in St. Jean d' Angely, a considerable walled town, and there he
continued the rest of the time he sojourned in France, which was about
sixteen years. When he began to preach, it was observed by some of his
hearers, that while he continued in the doctrinal part of his sermon, he
spoke very correct French, but when he came to his application, and when
his affections kindled, his fervor made him sometimes neglect the
accuracy of the French construction: But there were godly young men who
admonished him of this, which he took in very good part, so for
preventing mistakes of that kind, he desired the young gentlemen, when
they perceived him beginning to decline, to give him a sign, _viz._ that
they were to stand up; and thereafter he was more exact in his
expression through his whole sermon: So desirous was he, not only to
deliver good matter, but to recommend it in neat expression.

There were many times persons of great quality in his auditory, before
whom he was just as bold as ever he had been in a Scots village; which
moved Mr. Boyd of Trochrig once to ask him (after he had preached before
the university with Saumur with such boldness and authority as if