At the end of November, despairing of success in the siege, Arran asked France to send men and ships to take St Andrews Castle from the assassins, who, in December, obtained an armistice.

They would surrender, they said, when they got a pardon for their guilt from the Pope; but they begged Henry VIII.

to move the Emperor to move the Pope to give no pardon! The remission, none the less, arrived early in April 1547, but was mocked at by the garrison of the castle.

{99} The garrison and inmates of the castle presently welcomed the arrival of John Knox and some of his pupils.

Knox (born in Haddington, 1513-1515 ?), a priest and notary, had borne a two-handed sword and been of the body- guard of Wishart.