at Rouen or Dieppe, though sometimes a
cruise was taken to more distant waters. Once, at least, he was brought
within sight of the towers of the city where he had begun his ministry;
and then he solemnly affirmed that he believed God would once more allow
him to proclaim His word there. Even then he maintained unshaken faith
in God, and at times indulged in sallies of pleasantry against his
popish custodiers; but he would have been more than human if the iron
had not entered into his soul, and if traces of the sternness thence
arising had not long been visible in his character.

[Sidenote: His Work in England.]

Early in 1549 he was, by English influence, released from his captivity
in the French galleys, and from his exile.[90] He proceeded first to
London, and thereafter to Berwick, with the approval of the English
Privy Council. There he was as near to his persecuted fellow-countrymen
as it was safe for him to go, and there many of them might resort to
him; and in fact so many did so, that the president of the English
Northern Council became anxious for his transference farther south.
There also, through the appointment of the Privy Council, a wide field
of usefulness was opened to him among the English. Into this he entered
with his whole soul, preaching the Gospel with great boldness and
success not only to the garrison and citizens of Berwick, but also in
the surrounding districts; and proving himself a true successor of those
early Scottish missionaries who had originally won over to the Christian
faith the heathen Saxons of Northumbria. At Newcastle, in 1550, he
discussed, before Tonstal, Bishop of Durham, his doctors, and the
Northern Council, the idolatry of the mass; and in the spring of 1551 he
removed his headquarters to that more central and influential town,
extending his labours at times, no doubt, into Yorkshire, as well as
into Northumberland and Cumberland.

His fame as an eloquent preacher, and able and ready defender of the
doctrines of the Reformation, spread southwards; and at the close of
1551, or early in 1552, he was appointed one of the royal chaplains of
Edward VI. In the autumn of 1552 he was summoned to the south, and
preached with great power and faithfulness before the king and his
court. He persistently advocated, along with the other royal chaplains,
those thoroughgoing Protestant doctrines which, in the north, he had
previously held and taught and carried out in practice. In conjunc