upon Mr. Welch is called, and when he had entered the
king's room, he kneeled and silently prayed for wisdom and assistance.
Thereafter the king challenged him, how he durst preach in that place,
since it was against the laws of France, that any man should preach
within the verge of his court? Mr. Welch answered, Sir, if you did
right, you would come and hear me preach, and make all France hear me
likewise. For, said he, I preach you must be saved by the death and
merits of Jesus Christ, and not your own; and I preach, that as you are
king of France, you are under the authority of no man on earth: Those
men, he said, whom you hear, subject you to the Pope of Rome, which I
will never do. The king replied, Well, well, you shall be my minister;
and, as some say, called him father, which is an honour bestowed upon
few of the greatest prelates in France: However, he was favourably
dismissed at that time, and the king also left the city in peace.

But within a short time thereafter the war was renewed, and then Mr.
Welch told the inhabitants of the city, That now their cup was full, and
they should no more escape; which accordingly came to pass, for the king
took the town, and commanded Vitry the captain of his guard to enter and
preserve his minister from all danger; then horses and waggons were
provided for Mr. Welch, to transport him and his family for Rochelle,
whither he went, and there sojourned for a time.

After his flock in France was scattered, he obtained liberty to return
to England, and his friends intreated that he might have permission to
come to Scotland, because the physicians declared there was no other
method to preserve his life, but by the freedom he might have in his
native air. But to this king James would never yield, protesting he
would be unable to establish his beloved bishops in Scotland, if Mr.
Welch was permitted to return thither; so he languished at London a
considerable time; his disease was considered by some to have a tendency
to a sort of leprosy, physicians said he had been poisoned; a languor he
had together with a great weakness in his knees, caused by his continual
kneeling at prayer, by which it came to pass, that though he was able to
move his knees, and to walk, yet he was wholly insensible in them, and
the flesh became hard like a sort of horn. But when in the time of his
weakness, he was desired to remit somewhat of his excessive painfulness,
his answer was, He had his life of God,