in respect to the Castle of Edinburgh,
which he said would run like a sand-glass--a prediction supposed to be
fulfilled by a shower of sand pouring from some portion of the rock; and
its Captain, Kirkaldy, who was to escape over the walls, but to be taken
and to hang against the sun. All of which things, and many more,
occurred precisely as the seer said, after his death, striking great awe
to the hearts of those to whom the predictions were made. The special
prophecy in respect to Grange was softened by the announcement that "God
assures me there is mercy for his soul." And it is at once pathetic and
impressive to read of the consolation which this assurance gave to the
chivalrous Kirkaldy on the verge of the scaffold; and the awe-inspiring
spectacle presented to the believers, who after his execution saw his
body slowly turn and hang against the western sun, as it poured over the
Churchyard of St. Giles's, "west, about off the northward neuk of the
steeple." But this was after the prophet himself had passed into the
unseen.

Knox returned to Edinburgh in 1572, in August, the horrors of the
struggle between the Queen's party and the King's, as it was called, or
Regent's, being for the moment quieted, and the banished citizens
returning, although no permanent pacification had yet taken place. He
had but a few months remaining of life, and was very weary of the long
struggle and longing for rest. "Weary of the world, and daily looking
for the resolution of this my earthly tabernacle," he says. And in his
last publication dated from St. Andrews, whither the printer Lekprevik
had followed him, he heartily salutes and takes good-night of all the
faithful, earnestly desiring the assistance of their prayers, "that
without any notable scandal to the evangel of Jesus Christ I may end my
battle: for," he adds, "as the world is weary of me, so am I of it." He
lived long enough to welcome his successor in St. Giles's, to whom, to
hasten his arrival, he wrote the following touching letter, one of the
last compositions of his life:--

"All worldlie strength, yea even in things spiritual, decayes, and
yet shall never the work of God decay. Belovit brother, seeing that
God of His mercy, far above my expectation, has callit me over again
to Edinburgh, and yet that I feel nature so decayed, and daylie to
decay, that I look not for a long continuance of my battle, I would
gladly ance discharge my conscience into