Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

would stand by it at all hazards. So evenly poised
was the balance; a little thing might make it incline
to the one side or to the other; and what
tremendous issues hung upon the turning of it!
Not an hour did Knox lose in beginning his
work. The four preachers, as we have already said,
had been summoned to answer before the queen at
Stirling. "The hierarchy," said the lords of the
Congregation, "hope to draw our pastors into their
net, and sacrifice them as they did Walter Mill. We
will go with them, and defend them." "And I too,"
said Knox, not daunted by the outlawry which had
been passed upon him, "shall accompany my
brethren, and take part in what may await them
before the queen." But when the queen learned that
Knox was on his way to present himself before her,
she deserted the Diet against the preachers, and
forbade them to appear; but with the characteristic
perfidy of a Guise, when the day fixed in the
citation came, she ordered the summons to be
called, and the preachers to be outlawed for not
appearing.[3]
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