Note 549 — PREFACE (continued 4)

In the MS. this marginal note is scored through, as if to be deleted; but this seems to have been done by a later hand. A few of the letters are cut away by the binder, but the note itself occurs in Vautrollier's edition, p. 176; which does not contain the marginal words that follow, marking the precise time when this portion of the History was written. It is worthy of notice, that on the 15th June 1567, Bothwell having escaped to Dunbar, Queen Mary surrendered herself to the Nobles at Carberry Hill, and two days later, she was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle. The marginal words, therefore, to this purport, "Finish what thou hast begun, O my God, for the glory of thy name: 15th June 1567," may be regarded as if the author had viewed that event as being a partial accomplishment of his prediction which he states to have been written in April 1566. But the language here used by Knox, it is impossible to vindicate.