Melville forgot that there was no city of refuge for Beatoun. Regarding him as a murderer, and not supposing that by killing him he did himself incur the guilt of murder, he presented to him the point of his sword, and said gravely to him, ‘Repent thee of thine former wicked life, but especially of the shedding of the blood of that notable instrument of God, Mr. George Wishart; which albeit the flame of fire consumed before men, yet cries it a vengeance upon thee, and we from God are sent to revenge it. Here before my God I protest that neither the hatred of thy person, the love of thy riches, or the fear of any trouble thou couldst have done to me in particular, moved or moveth me to strike thee.’ And he struck him with his sword. The cardinal fell under repeated blows, without a word heard out of his mouth except these, ‘I am a priest! I am a Priest! Fie, fie! All is gone!’[366] It was very soon known all over the city that the castle had been taken. The friends and the creatures of the cardinal rose very quietly from their beds, says Buchanan, armed themselves, and presently appeared in a crowd about the fosse. They shouted with all their might, uttered threats and insults, and demanded shells and all the necessary means for making the assault. ‘You are making much noise to little purpose,’ said those in the castle to them; ‘the best it were to you to return to your own houses.’ The crowd answered, ‘What have ye done with my lord cardinal? Let us see my lord cardinal!’--‘The man that you call the cardinal,’ it was replied, ‘has received his reward, and in his own person will trouble the world no more.’ But his partisans only cried the louder, ‘We shall never depart till we see him,’ still persuaded that he was alive. Then one or two men took up the body, and bearing it to the very window at which a little while before Beatoun had sat to contemplate with gladness, and as if in triumph, the execution of the pious Wishart, exposed it there to the gaze of all.[367] Beatoun’s friends and the populace, struck with amazement and terror by the unexpected sight, and remembering Wishart’s prediction, dispersed in gloom and consternation. The tidings of this murder were speedily spread over all the land, and, while some angrily denounced it, others welcomed it as an event which restored their country to liberty. There were indeed some who, like James Melville, reckoned it a lawful act. But even among the enemies of the cardinal there were men wise and moderate, who looked on the murder with horror. It is remarked by one historian that of those who took part in it few escaped the judgment of God, who punishes transgressors by smiting them with the same stroke with which they have smitten others.[368]