-known edition of the classics, looked on the
volumes with no eye of love. To free himself of his tutor, Huet, he
eagerly consented to an early marriage. "Now we shall see if Mr. Huet
shall any more keep me to ancient geography!" exclaimed the Dauphin,
rejoicing in the first act of despotism. This ingenuous sally, it is said,
too deeply affected that learned man for many years afterwards. Huet's
zealous gentleness (for how could Huet be too rigid?) wanted the art which
Buchanan disdained to practise. But, in the case of the prince of
Scotland, a constitutional timidity combining with an ardour for study,
and therefore a veneration for his tutor, produced a more remarkable
effect. Such was the terror which the remembrance of this illustrious but
inexorable republican left on the imagination of his royal pupil, that
even so late as when James was seated on the English throne, once the
appearance of his frowning tutor in a dream greatly agitated the king,
who in vain attempted to pacify him in this portentous vision. This
extraordinary fact may be found in a manuscript letter of that day.[A]

[Footnote A: The learned Mede wrote the present letter soon after another,
which had not been acknowledged, to his friend Sir M. Stuteville; and the
writer is uneasy lest the political secrets of the day might bring the
parties into trouble. It seems he was desirous that letter should be read
and then burnt.

"_March 31, 1622._

"I hope my letter miscarried not; if it did I am in a sweet pickle. I
desired to hear from you of the receipt and extinction of it. Though there
is no danger in my letters whilst report is so rife, yet when it is
forgotten they will not be so safe; but your danger is as great as mine--

"Mr. Downham was with we, now come from London. He told me that it was
three years ago since those verses were delivered to the king in a dream,
by his Master Buchanan, who seemed to _check him severely, as he used to
do_; and his Majesty, in his dream, seemed desirous to pacify him, but he,
_turning away with a frowning countenance_, would utter those verses,
which his Majesty, perfectly remembering, repeated the next day, and many
took notice of them. Now, by occasion of the late soreness in his arm, and
the doubtfulness what it would prove; especially having, by mischance,
fallen into the fire with that arm, the remembrance of the verses began to
trouble him."

It appears that these verses were of a threatening nature, s