This was performed by Winram, superintendent of Fife, according to the order followed in the admission of superintendents, save that the Bishops of Caithness, the Superintendent of Lothian, and Mr. David Lindsay, who sat beside Douglas, laid their hands on his head. Knox had preached that day as usual, but, as Ballantyne is careful to tell us, "had {195} refused to inaugurate the said bishop"; and, as others add, had denounced "anathema to the giver, and anathema to the receiver," who, as rector and principal, "had already far more to do than such an aged man could hope to overtake." In the face of such a fact, it is idle for historians to insinuate, as Burton does, that Knox gave in his closing days even a _quasi_ sanction to episcopacy. In the month of July, 1572, a cessation of hostilities for a time was agreed upon between the Regent's party and that of the Queen, so that the city of Edinburgh was again delivered from annoyance, either at the hands of the garrison or of "the lewd fellows of the baser sort" who made its streets unsafe. As Melville says, "the good and honest men thereof returned to their homes, and earnestly implored their pastor, if he could without injury of his health, to do the same; and so Mr. Knox and his family passed home to Edinburgh," where he arrived on the 23rd of August. On the following Sunday he preached in his old pulpit; but as in his weakness he could not make himself heard in the large cathedral, the western part of the nave, known as the Tolbooth Church, was fitted up for his use; and that was the scene of his latest ministrations. He preached as often as he was able, delivering a course of sermons on the Redeemer's Passion, which he had always wished to be the theme of his last discourses. But in his debilitated condition, his ancient power had well-nigh departed. Only once during this period of decadence {196} did the "wonted fires" flame forth out of "their ashes." When he heard of the massacre of St. Bartholomew he had himself assisted into the pulpit, and there, moved at once by the tender recollections of the many friends of his own who had been among the victims, and by his life-long antagonism to the system which was identified with that horrible cruelty, he thundered forth the vengeance of Heaven against "that cruel murderer the king of France;" and turning to Le Croc, the French ambassador, he said, like another Elijah: "Go tell your master that sentence is pronounced against him; that the Divine vengeance shall never depart from him or from his house, except they repent; but his name shall remain an execration to posterity, and none proceeding from his loins shall enjoy his kingdom in peace."