The Roman plan came to nothing when, as Dempster says, "the lethal disease recurred." Acting on medical advice the church authorities returned him to Belgium for a change of climate. After an arduous and dangerous journey north of the Alps he connected at Tournai with James Cheyne, a member of his network of Scottish patrons. Securing funding from "the king of Spain", who must have been Philip II, and "Archduke Albert", Cheyne sent him to the Scottish College, Douai, from which, after a few years, he graduated.