Andrew Melville | Page 4

system he afterwards introduced in the Scottish
Universities.
From Paris Melville went to Poitiers, where he studied jurisprudence
and was also employed as tutor in the college of St. Marceon. In the
'Diary' of his nephew, who was a great literary impressionist, and
whose pages preserve for us the very 'form and pressure' of the scenes
he describes, many incidents are related of his Continental life which
disclose his character as a youth. During the third year of Melville's
residence in Poitiers the academic quiet of the town was broken by the
clash of arms. Civil war had broken out afresh in France, and Poitiers,
which was a Catholic town, held by the Duke of Guise, was invested by
a Protestant army under Coligny. Melville, as a foreigner and a
Protestant, found himself in a situation where he needed to use the
greatest caution to escape the danger to which he was exposed. When
the siege began the colleges were closed, and he was received into the
family of a prominent citizen as tutor to his boy. There was a small

party of the soldiery quartered in the house, and one day their corporal,
who had observed Melville at his devotions, challenged him as a
Huguenot, and threatened to deal with him by martial law as one who
might betray the town. With a courage and an adroitness which were
native to him, he at once turned round on his assailant and repudiated
his imputations; and seizing on some armour that was lying by, donned
it, and going to the stables took the best horse by the head, as if to join
there and then the ranks of the army of defence, when the corporal,
fairly nonplussed by the apparent vehemence of his loyalty, begged his
forgiveness. He had no more trouble of this kind, but he never felt
secure of his liberty, and it was a comfort to him to know that he had a
good horse standing in the stable by which, if it should come to the
worst, he could make his escape to Coligny's camp. During the siege
his pupil, a bright boy, to whom he had become deeply attached, was
killed by a cannon-ball which penetrated the wall of his room and
struck him on the thigh. Melville was in the house at the time, and on
entering the room the dying boy embraced him and passed away with
the words of the Apostle on his lips--[Greek: didaskale, ton dromon
mou teteleka]--'Master, I have finished my course.' 'That bern gaed
never out of his hart.'
On the siege being raised, Melville left Poitiers for Geneva, footing it
all the way in the company of a few fellow-students. If he was sickly as
a child, he gathered vigour in his 'teens and grew up a manly youth. He
was of short stature and great agility, high-spirited, brave, the cheeriest
of companions, full of resource in emergencies, and with an artful
humour by which he made his escape from many a difficult situation
incident to Continental travel at the time. On the journeys from town to
town on the way to Geneva he held out better than any of his comrades,
stepping along with no impedimenta but his Hebrew Bible which he
had slung at his side--the same Bible which he afterwards 'clanked'
down on the board before the King and Council in Edinburgh,--the
freshest of the company when the day's journey was ended, so that he
'wad out and sight' the towns and villages whithersoever they came
while the others lay down 'lyk tired tykes.' On reaching Geneva he and
one of his fellow-travellers, who was a Frenchman, presented
themselves at the gates together, when they were challenged by the

guard. 'The ports of Genev wer tentilie keipit, because of the troubles of
France and multitud of strangers that cam. Being thairfor inquyrit what
they war, the Franche man his companion answerit, "We ar puir
scollars." But Mr. Andro, perceaving that they haid na will of puir folks,
being alreadie owerlaid thairwith, said, "No, no, we ar nocht puir!
[though he admitted afterwards that they had 'but a crown to the fore'
between them]. We haiff alsmikle as will pey for all we tak, sa lang as
we tarie. We haiff letters from his acquentance to Monsieur di Beza; let
us deliver those, we crave na fordar."'
In Geneva Melville received a warm welcome from Beza, who reigned
there in place of Calvin, and through his influence he at once obtained
an appointment to the chair of Humanity in the College. During his
residence in that city, which lasted for five years, he had the
opportunity of mingling with many of the first scholars of the age, and
of the leaders of the Reformed movement in Europe. After