this
subject. Among the many fables current about Buchanan, there was one
circumstantial and oft-repeated, of his repentance on his deathbed of
his judgment of the Queen; but this is entirely set at rest by the
affecting record which we shall quote farther on of a last visit paid to
him by certain of his friends who had taken fright at the boldness of
his statements, and feared that the King, now grown up and developing
his own individual sentiments, might stop the issue of the book when he
saw these uncompromising records.

We must add one pretty story of Buchanan's kindness to his brethren in
scholarship and literature which shows the sharp and cautious scholar in
a very pleasant light. A certain Thomas Jack, a schoolmaster in Glasgow,
had composed in Latin verse a little book upon the ancient poets, called
the _Onomasticon Poeticum_, and encouraged by the friendship already, as
he says, shown to him by Buchanan, carried the book to him for revision.

"I found him in the royal palace of Stirling, diligently engaged in
writing his History of Scotland. He was so far from being displeased
by the interruption that he cheerfully took my work from my hands,
and after reading two or three pages of it, collected together his
own papers which were scattered on the table, and said, 'I will
desist from my work till I have done what you wish.' This promise he
accurately fulfilled; and within a few days gave me a paper written
with his own hand, and containing such corrections as he thought
necessary."

One can imagine the old scholar seated with his documents before him in
the light of a broad window, perhaps arrived at some knotty point which
wanted consideration, and turning from the crabbed papers, which would
not fit themselves in, with that delight in a lawful interruption and
temptation to idleness which only hard-working students know. Much has
been said about the misery of such interruptions to the absorbed writer,
but no one has pointed out the occasional relief and comfort which they
bring. Buchanan must have hailed this occasion of evading for a moment
his legitimate work with all the pleasure of an old critic and
connoisseur suddenly appealed to with such a congenial demand. Even in
our ashes live their wonted fires, and where is the scholar who does not
turn with delight from his history or his sermon to criticise a copy of
verses, to _savourer_ a fine latinism or dig his pen thr