Wishart answered, ‘This fire torments my body, but noways abates my spirit.’ Then catching sight of the cardinal at the window with his courtiers, he added, ‘He who in such state, from that high place, feedeth his eyes with my torments, within few days shall be hanged out at the same window to be seen with as much ignominy as he now leaneth there in pride.’[356] Some authors consider these words, reported by Buchanan, to be an instance of that _second sight_ with which they allege the Scots to be endowed. Wishart, however, did not need an extraordinary revelation to teach him that ‘the wicked goeth away in his wickedness.’ He had hardly uttered those words when the rope was tightened about his neck, so that he lost the power of speaking. The fire reduced his body to ashes; and the bishops, full of steadfast hatred of this servant of God, caused an order to be published that same evening through all the town, that no one should pray for their victim under the severest penalties. They knew what respect was felt for him by many even of the Catholics themselves. There are people who say that religion is a fable. A life and a death such as those of Wishart show that it is a great reality. CHAPTER XV. CONSPIRACY AGAINST BEATOUN.--HIS DEATH. (MARCH TO MAY 1546.) [Sidenote: FEELING CONCERNING WISHART’S DEATH.] The death of Wishart excited in Scotland feelings of very diverse character. The bishops and their adherents extolled to the skies the cardinal who, without troubling himself about the regent’s authority, and suppressing the insolence of the people, had constituted himself the defender of Rome and of the priesthood. ‘Ah,’ said they, ‘if the Church had formerly had such champions, she would keep all things under her dominion by the very force and weight of her majesty.’ Simple-hearted Christians lamented the martyrdom without a thought of revenge. But one part of the people, and with them several of the most eminent men, condemned aloud at table and everywhere the cardinal’s cruelty, and declared that the blood which had been shed called for vengeance. Even those who, without sharing Wishart’s views, were actuated by just and generous sentiments, asked themselves what hope they could have of preserving their liberties under the most cruel of tyrants; under a prelate who made war alike on men and on God; who pursued with his enmity every one that possessed wealth or was animated by piety, and sacrificed them to his caprice like beasts taken from the stall;[357] who gave his sanction to connections with worthless mistresses, and dissolved lawful marriages at his pleasure; who in his own house wallowed in debauchery with prostitutes, and out of doors, in his wrath, revelled in the slaughter of innocent men and in the blood of heretics.[358] Such is the portrait of Beatoun drawn by Buchanan.