ulterior view of attaching him to his patron's
ecclesiastical policy. Whether having this suspicion or no, Melville
declined the post. He had returned to Scotland for educational work, and
he determined to wait for an opening in one of the Universities.
Meanwhile he wished a little repose with the friends from whom he had
been so long separated; and he went to Baldovy, where he was received
with much affection. It was at this time that the attachment between him
and his nephew was formed and consecrated by a kind of sacramental act
on the part of the father of the latter--'I was resigned ower be my
father hailelie into him to veak[1] upon him as his sone and servant,
and, as my father said to him, to be a pladge of his love. And surlie
his service was easie, nocht to me onlie, bot even to the fremdest man
that ever served him.'

[Footnote 1: Wait.]

So great was Melville's scholarly reputation by this time that, at the
General Assembly held a month after his return, the Universities of
Glasgow and St. Andrews put in competing claims for his services as
Principal. He decided in favour of Glasgow, on account of its greater
need; and at the end of October he left Baldovy, accompanied by his
nephew, to enter on his academic office. On the way two days were spent
in Stirling, where the King, then a boy of nine, was residing; and the
Melvilles saw him and were much struck with his precocity in learning:
'He was the sweitest sight in Europe that day for strange and
extraordinar gifts of ingyne, judgment, memorie, and langage. I hard him
discours, walking upe and doun in the auld Lady Marr's hand, of knawlage
and ignorance, to my grait marvell and estonishment.' James never lost
his fancy for discoursing at large and learnedly to the 'marvell and
estonishment' of his hearers. But it was to visit the King's illustrious
preceptor, George Buchanan, that Melville came by Stirling. The two were
kindred spirits; they were like in their love of learning, in their
scholarly accomplishments, in their passion for teaching, in their
political and religious sympathies, in the ardour and vigour with which
they maintained their convictions, in their valorous action for the
defence of civil and religious freedom. At this time Buchanan was
beginning the work which filled his closing years--his _History of
Scotland_. Seven years afterwards the Melvilles paid him another visit,
in Edinburgh, the account of which by the younger is one of the _lo