year by year, is unrighteously conveyed furth of the kingdom; and for this, you are accursed, yea, an anathema maranatha in their eyes. You have put your hand to the plough, and you cannot, if you will, turn back. It is God's own cause, and that of the poor deluded and oppressed people of this realm, and it shall yet mightily prevail."

The Duke remained a few moments in deep thought; then suddenly exclaimed,

"To-morrow you are summoned to St Paul's, to answer on those articles of faith whereof you are accused. I shall attend you there, lest you be debarred impartial hearing; and, to maintain the cause of truth and justice, I shall engage the Earl Marshal to accompany us with all his retinue. We part for the present."

So saying, and without waiting for the thanks which Wicliff was ready to pour forth for this farther proof of his confidence and favour, he hastily strode from the apartment. The Reformer, on his part, betook himself to his books to prepare for the coming prosecution. Nineteen articles had been exhibited against him, founded upon extracts from his public lectures and sermons; relating chiefly to his opposition to the papal powers and usurpations, and to indulgences and the use of sanctuaries; his denial that the Pope had the power of remission of sins; and his fulminations against other abuses and corruptions in the Church. These, with the scandalous lives led by the monks, and particularly the mendicant friars, and the pride and luxury of the higher clergy, had been his favourite topics of declamation.

On the morning of the nineteenth day of February, in the year of grace 1377, the day on which Wicliff was cited to appear before the ecclesiastical authorities, the Duke of Lancaster and Henry Lord Piercy, Earl Marshal of England, with a large party of retainers, escorted the Reformer, in great pomp, to St Paul's. The old Cathedral, which was burnt down in the great fire of London, anno 1666, is described as having been one of the most stupendous of the Gothic buildings of the middle ages. Founded in 608 by Ethelbert, King of Kent, in the time of Mellitus, the first Bishop of London, on the spot where there had been a temple of the goddess Diana, it had been gradually enlarged and improved, till it became the most extensive and magnificent building of its kind in England. In the reign of Edward the Third, the space of ground on which St Paul's Cathedral stood exceeded three acres and a half. In the centre there was a great tower, the height of which, from the level ground, was two hundred and sixty feet. This was surmounted by a spire of wood, covered with lead, two hundred and seventy-four feet high; the height of the whole being about five hundred and thirty feet. In the body of the church stood a large cross, in the view of all who entered it. There was also an image of the Virgin, fixed to the pillar at the foot of Sir John de Beauchamp's tomb; to which image many were the oblations made by devout people and pilgrims, to the great benefit of the dean and resident canons.

When the Duke of Lancaster and his companions arrived at St Paul's, they found the Court was constituted, and had already begun the business of the day. A great crowd had collected, who showed many indications of a disposition to tumult and uproar. The inferior priests and monks had not only mustered in strong numbers the dependents and servants of the higher clergy, but they had also exercised to some effect their influence with the citizens, among whom they spread a report that the Duke

intended to seize upon the crown, and to abridge them of their liberties. By these means, they had drawn together a great concourse of people. There is no doubt, too, that many friends of the new opinions were also there, anxious to hear his principles expounded by the great Reformer himself. These Lollards, as they were called in derision, from a pastor of the Waldenses of the name of Walter Lollard, who lived in the preceding century, were, in consequence of Wicliff's bold denunciations of the false doctrines and vile practices of the priests, becoming, at this period, very numerous in the country; so much so, indeed, that it was a common saying at that time, that you could not meet two men on the highway without one of them being a Lollard. The crowd was so great on this occasion that the progress of the Duke and his friends was obstructed by them; and the Earl Marshal was obliged to make use of his official authority, and command his attendants to beat back the mob with their staves, before he and those with him could obtain admission into the chapel of Our Lady, where the two prelates sat, with some other bishops and noblemen who had come to hear the trial. As soon as the Bishop of London, who had taken upon himself to conduct the prosecution, and act as the Pope's Attorney-General in the case, saw that the accused person was attended into Court by a Prince of the blood, who had then the whole administration of the government in his hands, and by one of the most powerful noblemen in the realm, his indignation and displeasure knew no bounds. He arose, and hastily addressing the Earl Marshal, said,

"My Lord, methinks by such unseemly disturbance, you forget the respect due to this place, and to us, the representatives of our Holy Father the Pope, touching the matter of John Wicliff, Doctor in Divinity, a denounced heretic. Had we known beforehand what uproar your coming would occasion, and by what mastery you got admission, we would have stopped you and your company at the door."

Before Piercy had time to reply, the Duke of Lancaster, indignant at being thus accosted, exclaimed,—

"The Earl Marshal and myself made no more stir than was necessary to make our way through the crowd. And, now that we are here, we shall keep such mastery as we have got, though my Lord Bishop do say nay.”

This silenced the Bishop for the moment, and the trial of Wicliff commenced. Lord Piercy, however, still smarted under the insulting language of the Bishop, and, observing that the Reformer was standing in presence of his judges, to show his contempt for a Court which owed all its authority to a foreign power, namely, the Pope, he ordered a seat to be brought, and, in a loud voice, said to Wicliff,

"You have many things to answer to, and therefore must have a soft seat to rest upon during so tedious an attendance."

"He shall not sit in our presence," cried the Bishop of London, in a rage. "It is neither according to law nor to reason that he who is cited here to answer before his Ordinary, the Lord Pope, should sit down during the time of his answer. If he does, he will be punished for contempt of Court."

"I think that the motion of the Earl Marshal is but reasonable," said the Duke of Lancaster, interposing. "It is right, and proper, and just, that Dr Wicliff should be provided with a seat as well as his accusers. And, as for you, my Lord Bishop of London, who are grown so

proud and arrogant, I will yet bring down the pride, not only of you, but of all the prelacy in England."

Having thus delivered himself, his Highness turned round to some one beside him, and said, in a half whisper, that, "rather than take what the Bishop had said at his hands, he would pluck him by the hair of the head out of the Church."

These intemperate words were overheard, and at once gave rise to a tumult which effectually put a stop to the day's proceedings. The mob, acted upon by the friars and other emissaries of the clergy, who, mixing in disguise among them, had been busily keeping up an excitement against the Duke in the minds of the populace, now broke out into open disorder. Voices from all parts of the assemblage were heard loudly declaring that they would stand by their Bishop to the last drop of their blood; that they would not let him be so used in his own Cathedral by any Duke or Earl of them all; and that they would sooner lose their lives than that a hair of his head should be injured. An attack was at the same time made upon the Duke and the Earl as they were leaving the Church; and, hastily summoning their attendants to their aid, they had much difficulty in forcing their way safely through the excited mob.* In the meantime, the Bishop of London, finding it impossible to go on with the proceedings, had adjourned the Court, and retired with his coadjutor from the scene. Wicliff, on his part, who had been a silent spectator of the commotion, also withdrew, unmolested.

The crowd, disappointed at the escape of the Duke, now resolved to wreak their vengeance on his palace; and, with that celerity and concert for which a mob has ever been remarkable, and by which the purpose of a few ringleaders becomes known at once to the whole mass, they, with one accord, bent their steps towards the Savoy. In their way, their numbers were swelled by all the disorderly persons they met; many of whom accompanied them with the sole view of plunder. The rioters passed through the village of Strande, which originally consisted of the parish of St Clement Danes, so called from Clement the Dane, who was interred on the site of the church; the street now styled the Strand being then an open highway, leading from Westminster to London. At this village, there were that day some sports going forward, which had attracted a great crowd of people. The citizens' sons, and other young men assembled on the occasion, were practising on horseback the then favourite pastime called "Running at the Quintain," this being a pole with a transverse beam placed on it, containing at the broad end a mark, at which the parties aimed, and which, if they did not hit with their lance, they were, as Stowe quaintly says, "of all men laughed to scorn ;" and, if they did, they were instantly obliged to ride fast, and get out of the way, lest, on its swinging swiftly round, they received a sudden blow between the shoulders, calculated to unhorse them, from the bag, usually filled with sand, which hung at the opposite end of it. Betwixt the youthful citizens and the courtiers there was an old feud, caused by this very sport of the Quintain, which arose in this manner. In the year 1253, in the reign of Henry the Third, the young men of London were one day amusing themselves in running at the Quintain, the prize of a peacock having been promised to him who should most deftly hit the mark,

* An unhappy clergyman, who bore a strong resemblance to Lord Piercy, was killed by the erowd, in mistake for the Earl Marshal.

when they were joined by some of the dependants and followers of the court, who, jeering the citizens, and using contumelious expressions towards them, a quarrel ensued, and the courtiers were soundly beaten and dispersed; on which, proceeding to Westminster, where the court resided, they complained to the King, by whom the citizens were amerced in a thousand marks. This had of course produced and bequeathed a feeling of jealousy betwixt the Londoners and the dependants of the court, which had led the former, for more than a century, to avail themselves of every opportunity to insult and humiliate the latter. Such an occasion as that which now offered, of showing their hatred to the courtiers, was not to be slighted. The people assembled at once forsook their sport, and joined the city mob on their way to pillage the Palace of the Savoy ; so that by the time they arrived at their destination, their appearance and numbers were truly formidable.

The Duke of Lancaster, meanwhile, obtaining notice of the intention of the rioters, at first endeavoured to protect his palace, but finding it impossible to quell the crowd, he proceeded to the House of Lords, where, we are told, inveighing against the violent conduct of the Londoners, in which the Mayor and Aldermen appear to have been in some degree implicated, he brought in a bill, which was immediately passed, whereby the then magistrates were removed, and their places supplied with men in whom he had more confidence. The mob contented themselves with plundering the palace, which was one of the most stately and magnificent houses in the kingdom, of some part of its costly furniture: and, having reversed the arms of the Duke, as those of a traitor, they next proceeded to assault the house of the Earl Marshal, which suffered less in these tumults, and then dispersed of their own accord. Wicliff, no farther molested at this time by his adversaries, retired in peace to his rectory of Lutterworth in Leicestershire.

STANZAS TO THE MEMORY OF JOHN GALT, Esq.

* A considerable period of time has elapsed since the grave closed over all that was mortal of John Galt.

Yet although his name is associated with all that is beautiful, playful, graphic, and ingenious in prose-fiction; though his writings are familiar to his countrymen, nay, wherever the language in which he wrote is spoken,-though his works are known and appreciated over the Continent of Europe, and though he has conferred undying honour on the land of his nativity; no monument has been erected to his memory, in testimony of that reverence and gratitude which Scotland should pay to her illustrious dead,

It is true, a pillar of adamant would not prolong his memory, but, as was previously said in a similar circumstance, it would tell posterity that his contemporaries were not insensible to the fame of that man, who was only second to the great Author of Waverley in imaginative literature.

As the friction of two small pebbles can produce scintillations, which may afterwards fire the most important alarm-beacon; so we humbly hope that the idea thrown out in this note may not have been written in vain.

It may not be out of place, as a matter of curiosity, to enumerate the works of this distinguished man. Such an Herculean task has seldom been performed by a single individual; and may never occur again in the annals of literature. The titles of his works are as follow, viz. The Battle of Largs. Voyages and Travels. Letters from the Levant. Life of Wolsey. Life of Benjamin The Majolo. Historical Pictures. The Wandering Jew. Modern Travels in Asia. The Crusade. The Earthquake. The Ayrshire Legatees. The Annals of the Parish. The Provost. The Steam-Boat. Sir Andrew Wylie. The Entail. The Gathering of the West.

West.

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