The prayer of Kennedy touched the archbishop of Glasgow. He was disturbed. ‘It is better to spare these men,’ said he; ‘executions such as those which have taken place only do harm to the cause which they are meant to serve.’ The cardinal’s agents resolved to frighten the prelate, whose weakness they well knew, and they cried out lustily--‘Take care what ye are doing, my lord. Will ye condemn all that my lord cardinal and the other bishops and we have done? If so ye do, ye show yourself enemy to the kirk.’ Fear fell on the archbishop. Repressing the pity which had touched him, and silencing his conscience for the sake of preserving his reputation and his comfortable and easy life, he gave way. [Sidenote: THEIR MARTYRDOM.] Russel had remained calm till then, but exasperated by the calumnies of his enemies, indignant at the weakness of the archbishop, and confident in his own innocence, he said with dignity--‘This is your hour and power of darkness; now sit ye as judges, we stand wrongously accused, and more wrongously to be condemned; but the day shall come when our innocency shall appear, and that ye shall see your own blindness, to your everlasting confusion. Go forward, and fulfil the measure of your iniquity.’ Russel and Kennedy, condemned to the flames, were immediately handed over to the secular power. The day following, as they passed to the place of execution, Russel thought that he perceived some apprehension in his friend. ‘Brother,’ said he, ‘fear not: more potent is he that is in us than is he that is in the world. The pain that we shall suffer is short and shall be light, but our joy and our consolation shall never have end.’ They who heard it were wonderfully affected. When the two martyrs arrived at the pile, they fell on their knees and prayed; then, rising, they were bound to the stake without uttering a word, and supported the fire with patience, making no sign of fear. ‘They won the victory over death, looking with faith,’ says a historian, ‘for everlasting habitations.’ CHAPTER X. TERGIVERSATIONS OF KING JAMES V.--NEGOTIATIONS WITH HENRY VIII.--THEY FAIL. (1540-JANUARY, 1542.)