of his But that was a day that produced strange adventures for the fury of the Earl of Kildare ceased of a sudden and that fiery man was so affected with Suffolks action that throwing his sword into the same place of the Wood as he had done he came running towards him with open arms crying with tears That he would never be any more his enemy After which there was no kind of friendship which they showed not to one another and this days adventure having interrupted the design which Suffolk had to wander over the world he yielded to go to Calais with the Earl of Kildare saying sometimes within himself by a tenderness of heart which makes true Lovers know the force of their love that he went only to London to endeavour the re-establishment of his defender And in effect the procedure of that generous enemy was the first thing he told the King his Master and that Prince who loved rare and singular adventures the more admired that action of the Irish Earl that he thought him not capable of such generosity So that he gave him a very favourable reception and restoring him again into favour by that means united these two Rivals into so strict a bond of friendship that nothing could afterward dissolve it In the mean while as the return of the Duke of Suffolk was in agitation and that upon the complaints which the Queen made by her Letters the King of England intended to stand on his points with the Court of France hardly had he projected the measures he was to take in that conjuncture when the Marquess of Dorset wrote an account of the Death of LOWIS the Twelfth It would be hard to give an exact relation of what the Duke of Suffolk conceived upon this great news It wrought a new change in him not to be expressed only after he had done all that could be done for Mary of England after that he had sacrificed her to her self by an excess of Virtue by sacrificing himself for her in an excess of Love nothing else can be said but that the reward which so high and extraordinary an action deserved began to shine in his eyes There was nothing able to moderate his joy but a false report that was spread abroad of the Queens being with Child For besides that this would have left him no hopes it being unlikely that the Mother of a Dolphin of France could leave her Sons Kingdom or enter into a second marriage with a person such as he was taken to be he dreaded likewise that the Duke of Valois whom she would thereby disappoint of a Crown might not revolt against her He likewise feared the Calumnies which the Favourites of that Prince would not fail to publish after that they had already slandered her and that fatal conception at length seemed to rob him of all that he thought was left him by the Death of LOWIS the Twelfth But it happened to be a mistake And the Queen having her self declared the contrary that the Proclamation of the Duke of Valois might not be held in suspense it was quickly perceived that she was the first who acknowledg'd him King of France by the name of FRANCIS the First and the Marquess de Sanferre who in the name of that Prince arrived shortly at London to renew the Treaty of Peace which the King his Father-in-law had concluded the year before put an end to the troubles of the Duke of Suffolk So that his heart being filled with joy HENRY the Eighth whose care it was also to render him happy would no longer delay his bliss He condescended to all that was proposed to him for the continuation of the Treaty and because with the interests of the two Crowns it behoved him likewise to regulate the concerns of the Queen his Sister in Quality of Dowager he took that pretext to send Suffolk into France with the title of Ambassadour Plenipotentiary which he discharged with so great splendour that Prince Henry Count of Nassaw who came to Paris at the same time in name of the Arch-Duke about the affairs of the Low-Countries was somewhat troubled to see a subject of England so highly out-do him But as there was nothing in France that could equal the Magnificence of the English and all the Court of FRANCIS the First were envious at it as well as the Flemings so there was nothing in the same Kingdom at that time comparable to the Beauty of the Queen The air wherewith she received the Duke of Suffolk at the Palace des Tournelles made the wits at Court say That she needed not too much virtue to comfort her for the death of a husband and it must be acknowledged that under her mourning Veil and Peak which by the light of a vast number of Torches set more advantageously off the delicate whiteness of her skin nothing was to be seen in her that day which might occasion melancholy or grief That raillery was carried as far as possibly it could be whilst the necessity of the affairs which they had to regulate with the King of France and his Ministers obliged them often to speak together and to be by themselves But whatever hath been said of them and whatsoever reports have been raised of their mutual complaisances or the joy that they had to meet again yet it is still true that they never gave any ground for Calumny and Reproach If they were so near to make a slip as men imagined yet they were cautious and in dangerous occasions when they might have done otherways they virtuously resisted temptation The new King of France was not of that temper for that Prince naturally very free with women would have made no Ceremony to have perswaded the Queen had she been in the least inclined to hear him He had many times much ado to leave her when the affairs of his Kingdom required it and for all the Grandure and Magnanimity which hath appeared in the course of his life yet being at that time too weak for his passion he appeared sometimes so peevish and out of humour that the same detracting tongues which have endeavoured to sully the reputation of Mary of England have given it out that his amorous fever made him so light-headed as to detest his marriage with the Daughter of LOWIS the Twelfth and to protest more than once that he had rather have enjoyed his Widow than his Kingdom Whether it was an effect of the Queens sweet disposition or that she was pleased to revenge her self for the troubles that he caused her before he was King she appeared not altogether inexorable Yet she was still the same at the heart and never what he took her to be So that one day when her beauty so surprised him that he forgot some of his measures thinking to take her on the right side he told her That since he himself could not expect to be happy it behoved him at least to endeavour to make her so that therefore he
at the head of four thousand horse eight hundred foot and six pieces of Cannon passes the River Lis near to Derlet and lyes in wait for the Enemies at the passage of Hutin They retreated with great assurance marching in confusion as he had foreseen for being pursued by none after the false allarm which was purposely given them was over and missing none of their number but the young Count D'anton Son to the Seignior of Bouchage and some others that could not get out of Therowenne they dreamt not of any greater mischief when Brandon appearing of a sudden so sharply charged them that having no leisure to mount their great Horses again nor to put on their head-pieces they began to be in disorder The brave la Palisse notwithstanding of the stout resistance he made was already taken and the undaunted Chevalier Bayard having almost singlely defended the bridg of Hutin became companion in the bad fortune of Clairmont D'anjow and of Bussy D'amboise to whose assistance he came There remained none but the Duke of Longueville to head the subdued who being mounted on a stout charging-horse compleatly armed it seemed no easie matter for one man hand to hand to get the better of him and besides a considerable body of the French Army advanceing in order of Battel those that had been put to flight began to rally So that Brandon perceiving that the total rout of the Enemies depended on the overthrow of this Warriour and by the riches of his arms taking him for a French Prince he left la Palisse in the hands of some Gentlemen who kept him not long and with sword in hand set upon him whose resistance hindered his Victory The Duke of Longueville received him valiantly but at length after the interchanging of many blows Brandon with the danger of a wound which he received in the thigh dismounted the Duke who disjoynted his shoulder by the fall The French upon this turned back upon those that were coming to their aid and put their own men in as great disorder as the Enemy would have done and seeing in this Battel their horses heels had done them better service than the points of their swords it was called the Battel of Spurs But it had been far better for Brandon that the Duke of Longueville had escaped with the rest for the injury that he did him afterward was so great that all the Glory he obtained in overcoming him and all the praise that he gained thereby was not enough to make amends for it Time sensibly discovering to him that fortune by great evils can be repayed of her greatest favours After this there happened no more considerable action on either side Brandon's wound kept him a fortnight a-bed and the King of France though he had lost but very few men being unwilling to expose his Kingdom to the danger of a Battel thought it best to give Therowenne to the fortune of his Enemies Teligny after two months siege rendered it on composition Victuals and Ammunition failing him before his Courage and the King of England and the Emperour not agreeing betwixt themselves about the propriety of the place the one claiming it by right of Inheritance and the other by Conquest it was presently demolished In the mean time Lowis the Twelfth that he might put a stop to his bad success by employing a General in whose safety all his Subjects might be concerned caused the young Duke of Valois to advance to Blangy But neither the merit of that Prince nor the great Forces that daily joyned him hindered the progress of the King of England for whilst the Duke Longueville and the other Prisoners were on their way to London he lay down before the City of Tournay which having no hope of relief as lying in the midst of the Low-Countreys made no long resistance And having now reduced that place under his Obedience and beginning to have some jarring with the Emperour who in many things was chargeable to him and in others unfaithful he returned back into England Never was Prince better satisfied for besides his own Conquests of Therowenne and Tournay the Victory which the Earl of Surrey's Lieutenant had just then obtained over the Scots raised him to the highest pitch of fortune that he could almost pretend to and though his Fleet had received some ruffle in the Bay of Brest yet the death of the King of Scotland killed in the Battel of Floudon which he fought only for the interest of France though he was his Brother-in-law revenged him fully of that and of the damage which Pregent and Primanguet had done him on his Wastes Insomuch that he entred London in triumph where to reward those who had fought so valiantly for his Glory he made Brandon Duke of Suffolk gave the Title of Duke of Norfolk to the Earl of Surrey and to his Son the Admiral that of Surrey and Talbot Gray and Sommerset who had behaved themselves stoutly on all occasions were created the one Earl of Shrewsbury in the place of his Father who desired it the other Marquess of Dorset his Father being lately dead and the last Earl of Worcester But these are matters wide of my Subject and I should not remark them by the by but for avoiding confusion in the names of those who may have some share in the sequel of this History My business should be to relate the joy that the English Princess conceived upon the return of Brandon to which the title of Duke of Suffolk as from henceforth he must be named added but little for a real virtue once known needs no other Ornaments And the affectionate rebukes she gave him for having so often exposed himself to dangers would without doubt require a more exact description than I make were it not that the tenderness of these Lovers is sufficiently known and that their pains rather than pleasures are to be related since that amidst trouble and difficulties the greatness and power of Love appears more conspicuous After so fair beginnings they wanted not crosses and all that had befallen them before the War from the competition of Gray Bourchier and Sommerset from the Kings indifferency after the death of Cecile Blunt or from the aggression of the Earl of Kildare followed by an Imprisonment which the secret Quality of a Prince of York rendered the more dangerous All this I say bears no proportion with what they endured afterward Upon the return from the War of France all people imagining that Brandon who had acquired so much Glory there should espouse the Princess Mary when they saw him only made Duke of Suffolk and nothing else talked of they believed that his fortune was at a stand and that in that respect there had been more policy than friendship in the Conduct of the King There is but little certainty in the opinions of men all is but whimsey There was no more discourse therefore of his Intelligence with Mary of England nor of the services he rendered
BRANDON that payed his services to the Lady Latimer But people were not always so credulous they made a little too bold with that Lady's reputation and the mind of man commonly passes over things which are so easily discovered that it may pry into those that are studiously kept from its knowledg There were severals therefore that observing the obliging manner how the Princess treated BRANDON in publick and knowing besides somewhat of the secret visits which he never rendered to her in her appartment but in company of the KING believed that he made them alone The rumour of this began to spread by degrees and though being vexed thereat he made appear to the KING his Master the consequences thereof yet that voluptuous KING was too much wedded to his pleasures to renounce them and BRANDON himself began at length to taste such pleasures as he could not have found in any other course of life The Lady Latimer who was desperately in love with him essaying by all ways of compliance to merit his affection allowed him great liberty with the Princess Mary She let him see the lovely Princess oftner than once asleep in the secret of Night and fearing nothing of the KING who was then commonly taken up with her Daughter because all these things seemed only to be done in attending of him she left him many times alone in her Chamber or at most but accompanied by a Maid privy to her intrigues called Judith Kiffin which was thought worse than to have left them together upon their bare word However the matter be the pleasure of seeing Mary of England as he did made him at length speak but faintly of what the KING did in prejudice of her reputation and though he always dreaded the consequences of those frolicks yet by little and little he accustomed himself not to find fault with the occasions Matters being in this state and the QUEEN by degrees recovering her health and appearing more cheerful the Court full of Mistresses and Lovers found their entertainment in the various emergents that love every moment occasioned amongst them when Gray Bourchier and Sommerset impatient of losing more sighs resolved to trouble the felicity of BRANDON They had already for some days set spies to observe him or otherways lay in wait for him themselves upon notice given them that he went almost every night to the apartment of the Princess Their own eyes had seen him and they knew the by-ways he used to take though they had not discovered that he was with the KING or in the least suspected it so careful was that Prince to pass unknown They placed themselves therefore in Ambush at a back-door in the Palace by which BRANDON the fifth in company had just before entred and fearing no impediment in their design unless by the Rancounter of some Germans who had remained at London after the conclusion of the League whom they had already agreed among themselves to accuse of the disorders which themselves intended to commit though Gray was that night indisposed yet the other two being more fiery and unwilling to let slip this occasion they rallied together to the number of seven All things appeared to them at first in as fair a way as they desired No body molested them in the quarter where they had posted themselves and the Moon being over-clouded gave no more light but what was enough for them to distinguish themselves by the marks that they carried So that the KING returning from his visit hardly had he that kept the key opened the door when Bourchier presented a Pistol to the two Yeomen of the Guard that came out first Stand said he where is BRANDON Sommerset immediately in the same manner put the question to them But the two Guards so much the more daring that they had the KING for a witness of their Courage made them answer only with their Carabines and both of them firing at the same instant that Bourchier and Sommerset fired as there were but two reports heard so there were but two shot that did execution That of Sommerset passing under the hand of the Yeoman of the Guard that stood opposite to him was carried too high and Bourchiers only grazed upon the others Cassock But as one of the Carabines missed Sommerset who by good fortune kneeled on one knee so the other bruised the shoulder of Bourchier and both being loaded with several Bullets killed three of their men that stood behind them The KING in the mean time who feared nothing so much as to be discovered considering the boldness of the attempt and perceiving two of the contrary party who remained betake themselves to flight caused quickly the other door of the Palace by which he was to enter to be opened BRANDON having drawn but finding none to fight with came shortly after and the two Yeomen of Guard that knew the Kings intention as well as he having immediately disarmed Sommerset and Bourchier followed him This was the fortune of these Rivals who found all the difficulty imaginable to get home the one sorely wounded and the other soundly beaten and both in extreme despair The KING was no sooner where he desired to be but being furiously incensed against them he resolved and vowed their ruin yet Brandon interposing stopt this first ebullition of choler by representing to him that in punishing the guilty according to their merit he would discover the secret and to that prevalent reason adding considerations that concerned the Princess he at length perswaded him that they had received usage hard enough to make them capable of some favour Insomuch that the whole matter past for an unlucky skuffle that Bourchier and Sommerset had had with some drunken Germans At least the Earl of Essex was ordered to publish as much the day following and to make it the more credible strangers were forbidden to walk abroad in the night upon pain of death None but the Rivals of BRANDON whispered secretly what they knew but by the absolute Command which the KING had given to the Earl of Essex that he should impute the wound of his Son to those who were no ways concerned in it and by the fierce threats he made to that Earl for the suspicions that he endeavoured to insinuate against the Princess his Sister so high as that he replied in rage that knowing better than he what her carriage was it was only in respect of his age that he pardoned so insolent a Calumny In a word by the secret rumour that began to spread that the King himself was a Party they by little and little diving into his intrigue with Cecile Blunt found all their Fortunes good so that a private reason hindered him from taking publick revenge Gray went away with the Marquess of Dorset his Father who carried six thousand English to Fontarabie to assist the King of Spain in invading Guyenne according to an Article of the League Howard and Talbot though they were not no more than he at
that fatal Rancounter beg'd leave to serve in the same Army and Sommerset went to Scotland upon some pretext of his own So that there remaining none but Bourchier whose wound kept him long from the publick Brandon found himself in a few days delivered from all his Enemies But in their absence they did him more mischief than they had done in person and whether it was an effect of their malice or of the sequel of things which being with difficulty concealed time brings to light at length men began to speak more openly than they had been accustomed to do of the Amours of the Princess and Brandon The King was so far from being offended herewith that he seemed rather to applaud it some who impertinently discourse of the carriage of Princes wherein there is not always so great ground of reasoning as is believed imagined that all that he did that way was a politick fetch to break the Grandees of his Kingdom of the designs they might have for his Sister others who are not always willing to infect the Court with false notions kept themselves to what they saw and more wisely believed that it was only out of a natural complaisance that he entertained for all sorts of gallantry But though all that was said of the Princess and Brandon redounded still to his Honour yet he reaped nothing from it but vexation and grief neither could his truly generous and noble soul relish that honour which he received at the cost of what he loved He was far more affected with the reproaches that the Princess Mary might have talkt of him though indeed she never made any of him On the contrary he having sometimes expressed himself to her concerning these things in a very sorrowful manner she had always the goodness to tell him that he should follow the example and not trouble himself with the discourse of people But 〈…〉 this obliging carriage served only to encrease his pain and as two hearts that are truly smitten are unwilling to be behind in duty to one another so he concerned himself the more in the glory of the Princess that she seemed to slight it for the love of him Insomuch that falling very pensive and melancholick notwithstanding the pains that she took to comfort him and having no other thoughts but to leave the Kingdom that he might remove the occasions of detraction he acquainted my Lord Hastings his Uncle to whom he told all his affairs with his design He being a fierce Old Soldier took him at first up sharply for the little Courage he made shew of afterward falling in discourse about the Earls of Surrey and Essex he told him that the race of Howards and Bourchiers was indeed ancient and raised to vast Estates and eminent Dignities by the merits of many predecessors but that yet they were not the only nobles who could brag of as great antiquity and the glory of as many heroical Actions nor that they had any such advantages as might give them ground to insult over the Brandons and Hastings and that therefore it behoved him not at all for the railery of some jealous Rivals to abandon the Prospects which both the King and Princess did countenance However all this made no great impression on the mind of Brandon He adhered to his resolution and had already taken his measures for withdrawing when at length the good Old man Hastings being unable to retain him by his reasons found himself obliged to discover to him what he had promised never to reveal The resolution was doubtless great and cost the Old man dear besides the weakness of old age he had more reason than any other to be dismayed which made him long complain of the violence that his Nephew put upon him before he began that dangerous discourse And that he might in some manner prepare him for it having brought out a manuscript of all Merlins Prophesies he made him read that which was the cause of the death of the Duke of Clarence conceived in these words When the White Rose shall the Red subdue G. Of that race shall change its Hue And the Red o're it shall bloom anew There shall remain of the White slock But one bud fallen on Hemlock Yet too much zeal doth oft annoy For an inn'cent maid shall it destroy When he had read the Prophesie the ancient Gentleman tracing matters as far back as was necessary explained to him the beginning of the prediction according as the event had made it evident In the first verse he let him see the Victory of Edward of York designed by the White Rose over HENRY the Sixt of Lancaster who carried the Red. In the second he discovered to him the deplorable mistake of that Victorious Prince who having caused his younger Brother George Duke of Clarence to be put to death in a pipe of Malmsey because the first letter of his name was a fatal G. gave his other Brother Richard Duke of Glocester of whom he had no suspicion by his last will opportunity of murthering his two Sons and in the third he shewed him th◠return of Prince Henry Earl of Richmont who in the blood of that Tyrant made the red Roses flourish again But having thus interpreted the three first verses which had given matter of much discourse in that time Hastings his countenance changed colour and being deeply affected with the importance of the secret that he was about to reveal concluding in a fret what with reason he had begun he told him that the world had indeed sufficiently understood by the event of things the beginning of the Prophesie of Merlin but that few understood the rest That though the flatterers of the late King had perswaded him that by the death of the only Son of Richard the Tyrant which happened by a fall the prediction was fulfilled and explicated because that he having fallen in a place where Hemlock grew an inconsiderate person who came running after thinking to wipe and stop the blood of his wound with that herb had hastened his death yet that he understood somewhat more than these flatterers knew and that the cruel death of the poor Earl of Warwick Son of the Duke of Clarence had not fulfilled the Prophesie either but that that unfortunate Prince having escaped from the superstitious scrupulosity of one of his Uncles and being confined to a Castle by the other was secretly married to a Daughter of Charles Hemlock Brother-in-law to himself who commanded in that place by whom he had a Son and that not to hold him long in suspense he was that Son At these words Brandon cried out as if he had been struck with Thunder and the Lord Hastings his Uncle in vain endeavoured to perswade him that though he had reason to be surprised at the relation yet he ought to believe it for he still maintained that it was but a tale devised to excite in him greater Courage At length Hastings by reason of the sensible danger
asked him if it was true that he intended to cause him to be put to death So that this Prince who on such occasions was very sensible answering only with kisses and tears and her Caresses expressing her desire far more intelligibly than words gave him hardly liberty to speak that he might oppose himself to the impatience that she was in He left her that he might with his counsel contrive a way to relieve Brandon from the Tower with pretext of justice But for all the formality which he affected to observe in his affairs he had no great occasion to be so scrupulous in this matter The greatest part of the Court who perceived his design spake openly for Brandon against the Earl of Kildare And after a formal shew of examining the tumultuary depositions that they might give some favourable colour to their proceedings the Lords Poyning and Terell were immediately sent to the Prisoner He came with them without a guard and as he cast himself on his knees before the King there appearing in his cloaths some mark of the insolent usage that he had met with you see said the King to him how dangerous it is for you to remove from me and that I had reason not to consent to your departure seeing that in a moment that you have left me there is a world of enemies broken loose against you Whereupon Brandon offering to speak of the aggression of the Earl of Kildare the King stopped him at the first word and commanded him to rise promising to do justice in time and place to him that deserved it Then drawing him a little aside he told him that the Princess's health must be his chief endeavour and that for his better succeeding in that office he thought it not fit he should see her in the disorder that he was in No body heard this discourse nor somewhat else that passed betwixt them It was only seen that the King forced himself to appear grave in his discourse and whilst he himself went to change his cloaths as well as Brandon whom he had again ordered to do so all Brandons friends whom his ill fortune had not as yet much dispersed rallied together and brought him from his Lodgings where some met him and others accompanied him as in triumph to the Palace He payed his second visit to the Queen who had interceded for him and whilst he was with her Majesty the King that he might countenance his visit to his Sister came back to her apartment But he suffered none of his train to come farther in than the first Gallery under pretext that much company was incommodious to sick persons and so soon as he had notice that Brandon was coming leaving none with her but Judith Kiffen he himself withdrew to the Dutchess of Salisbury's apartment that in so delicate and much-desired an interview she might not be under any constraint It would be a great undertaking to endeavour to give a precise and full account of all that was done and said at that time betwixt Brandon and the English Princess besides at first their hearts and eyes made all the discourse the Princess wanting strength to speak otherways and Brandon having so much to say that he knew not well how to express any thing At length the Princess spake first who seeing him more afflicted at her distemper than could be imagined strained her self to tell him that it was nothing and that seeing he was free from the danger wherein she believed him to be she should shortly be cured of the sickness wherein he saw her She declared to him moreover as well as she could that the hurt or death of the Earl of Kildare was not that which had dismayed her but that she feared he had been discovered He answered but very little to that though no body could hear what they said Nor could the Kings note which she gave him to read for the confirmation of her belief and fear engage him to enter on that discourse He knew that the safest way was never to speak more of it and having heard nothing to that purpose in his Prison and the manner how the King received him having no relation at all to that he was well enough acquainted with his character and stile to guess at the truth of the matter So that he thought it sufficient by his looks to free her from the apprehension that she had conceived and discoursing to her only concerning her health with mutual expressions of tender affection they began to renew the testimonies of their real loves when the King fearing that too long a conversation might be hurtful to a sick person returned and separated them with as much kindness as he had brought them together Brandon followed him that he might render him thanks for his favours and inform himself what was to be the issue of the Rancounter he had had with the Earl of Kildare whose wounds were not mortal But their discourse on that subject was not long The King who naturally concerned himself in the amours of every one wishing him only joy for the good opinion that a fair Princess was pleased to have of him took thereby occasion to rally with him because he had taken him for his Rival upon some words of Gallantry which escaped from him as he said whil'st he intended only to bewail the death of Cecile Then he upbraided him with the small trust he gave to his word and friendship that carried him so far as to resolve to leave him and confessing at length frankly that he had not caused him to be sent to the Tower but to revenge himself of that private affront and at the same time to discover what love could do in the heart of a young Princess it might seem that he had no more to say for his satisfaction But yet he stopped not there for finding in himself some secret joy which added somewhat to his natural debonairity and that it concerned the health of his Sister that Brandon should re-assume his former jollities that with more success he might employ himself in her Service he thought it not fit to dismiss him before he had dissipated the smallest mists which great affairs how well soever concluded leave commonly behind them No forrain nor remote matters disturbed him at that time and he had just then received good news from the Emperour who to begin the War against France promised to act on the Frontiers of Picardy which the wary King of Spain deferred to do on the side of Guyenne So that finding his mind in great liberty he gave Brandon a review of the life they had led together and laying before him almost all the Testimonies of Friendship that he had shewed him he forgot not amongst the rest to take special notice of the merit of that obliging manner whereby he had countenanced his love With that desiring a suitable return of Justice he cryed that it was his part to render it him adding that he knew not
how he could after so powerful obligations suspect that he would take the Earl of Kildare's part against him and far less how he could believe him to be in love with his own Sister and the Rival of a friend of whose passion he himself had laid the foundation and at length concluded that he well perceived that love was always accompanied with infirmities and that lovers could not guard against them when their friends had the art to foresee them At these last words which he could not pronounce without a smile Brandon was so fully convinced of his sincerity that he lost all the remains of distrust and trouble which he could possibly retain And to confirm him in the just perswasion that he was of the King gave him his hand as an evidence of a perfect good correspondence then thinking it needless to intreat him to take care of the Princess recovery knowing it to be his greatest concern he thought it enough to tell him in the most taking way imaginable that they ought both to contribute their utmost endeavours for that effect and that he himself being guilty of much imprudence in that conjuncture would grant her for her comfort without exception whatever she pleased to desire But Brandon who understood but too well the meaning of that discourse was so much the more affected with it that by an excess of love and virtue he began of himself so to be disposed as not to be flattered with any thing The hopes that had dazled him in his younger days dazled him now no more in the age that he had attained to Time and reason made him daily discover new impediments His true birth seemed likewise to object secret hinderances which appeared invincible and whatsoever affection the Princess was preingaged in in his favour and what goodness soever the King might evidence to him yet he saw no appearance to promise himself that he would one day give her to him in marriage nor did he find it even reasonable that he himself should desire it He very well knew that the Daughters and Sisters of Kings are always married for reasons of State and that it was to much purpose indeed for him to ballance the ancient custom of England and the design that the King had to establish it with that universal maxim Neither that ancient custom nor the re-establishment that the King gave out he intended to make of it appeared to him any thing but a vain phantasm raised against the treaty of Calais or at most but a specious reason to temporise for some years in expectation of some better alliance against the house of Austria To that it may be added that though it had been true that the lovely Princess had not been intended in marriage to any Forraign Prince there were yet many other great Lords in England Scotland and Ireland who might be chosen for that purpose and all those who pretended to her as he did be excluded So that finding himself at that time filled with these great and hard thoughts which sometimes had made him resolve to forsake the Kingdom and sometimes to withdraw out of it for a time he thought he could never find a more favourable occasion to open himself to the King And therefore he broke his mind to him as he had been desirous to do and reflecting on the zeal for the Princess which that Prince endeavoured to inspire in him he told him That as to that he had more need of a curb than a spur and that the sentiments of his heart were but too publickly known That he saw on all hands but too many who were envious of a blessing which he owed only to his Approbation and not to the goodness of her who was reproached therewith That after so much rumour it was very fit to raise no more That rather than his respects should cost the greatest Princess of the world so dear he would renounce the honour of her Presence and that seeing he was unable to do her any service he ought at least to be careful of her Glory And that to succeed in that design there was no other expedient but flight That though he made no difference betwixt dying and leaving of London yet he was fully resolved to do it if his Majesty would give him leave That in begging it of him he could assure his Majesty that he had never flattered himself with any foolish hope in reference to the Princess That what goodness soever she might have for him yet he never framed any disadvantageous notions of her and that if he durst ever make a wish when he saw her it was only that he might be able to serve her so long as he lived But that he was so far from that that it behoved him for the future to renounce the honour of seeing her and that the innocence of his intentions sufficed not to preserve him in the enjoyment of so precious a blessing That to conclude he beg'd his pardon for the disorders which he might have occasioned in his Court that he acknowledged himself altogether unworthy of the favours that he had conferred upon him but that nevertheless he did not think he deserved the character of ungrateful and that if he found him in the least guilty of that he prayed him to take from him that odious name by taking away his life This was the substance of what the passionate Brandon expressed in no less passionate terms and the King the more touched with his virtue that he was sensible enough that he had not used him kindly since the death of Cecile had no way to defend himself His heart was wholly again inflamed for a man of so sublime a soul and in a nice emulation which Kings seldom condescend to with their subjects he answered Brandon that he perceived he was well informed of what he had written to his Sister and that he made great matters of it though it deserved no such construction for the truth was that he being willing to try the effects of love in a case of adversity had made use of the first word that appeared proper for his design That there was no more in that note and that in fine as to himself it was but a trifle as well as the rest but not so on his part seeing his memory was so good and he so touchy that he could not pardon some small inequalities which appeared in his humour since the death of Cecile That he had had some doubts that Woolsey might give him some Umbrage but that he never thought the impression could have been so deep and that the same appearances that had deceived him before deceived him still That notwithstanding he could not but excuse two errors into which he let himself only be led by an excess of affection That to undeceive him he would endeavour to proceed to an equal excess and that there was nothing in his Kingdom so great to which his heart and eyes might not aspire And
their former face and the Duke of Longueville who knew nothing of the disorder which he caused nor of the evil wherewith he had been threatned continued his Gallantries but with this difference that the Princess concerned at the troubles of Suffolk seemed not to him to have the same freedom of humour as formerly He judged of that sometimes in her favour and sometimes to her prejudice according to the freakishness of Lovers who for one and the same thing are many times both glad and sorrowful and as he had a good conceit of himself so he enclined rather to the one side than the other But hardly was that disorder appeased when it broke out again more cruelly than before for some Letters by a strange fatality being come to London which gave advice that the King of France designed a new marriage with an Italian Princess that bad rumour which seemed not in the least to have any relation to the fortune of Suffolk was the utter overthrow of all his hopes The Duke of Longueville who found no fairer pretext to Colour his Love for the English Princess but that of seeing her Queen of France and considering that all that he had said in respect of the Duke of Valois heir of the Crown was but a dull notion wherewith he was not himself much flattered seeing that he knew several things of the marriage of that Prince with the Princess Claudia that were far different from what the pleasure of discourse and his passion had made him say on that subject so soon as he was informed of the news from Paris without examining whether it was false or true he conceived a more sensible and specious notion and the interest of the Kingdom joyned to that pretended desire of a new marriage which was published of his King perfected in his mind that Image The age of LOWIS the Twelfth afforded him new delights whensoever he reflected thereon and if it be free once to declare what he had always in his thoughts he imagined that the lovely Princess in the embraces of an old Husband oppressed with the Gout and many other infirmities might be very well allowed some liberty This idle fancy then made his flame sparkle so that having rendered her a visit upon occasion of the report that went of the King of France with eyes glanceing with the joy that he desired to raise in her having premised such circumstances as he judged proper for his design he expressed himself with so prepossessed and contented an air that he left her hardly the liberty to say any thing against his overture The Princess only seemed not at all surprised and as if she had thought on nothing less giving him a cold answer that he designed her for every body she allowed him no opportunity of insisting in his discourse The jealousie of Suffolk created her too much trouble to entertain him on such a subject and she was so far from giving the least check to the hopes which she desired him to continue in by so vain a consideration that for all the Crowns of the World she would not have disturbed the quiet of his heart So that the Duke of Longueville finding her not so easie to be perswaded in respect of LOWIS the Twelfth as he believed she might have been in favour of the Duke of Valois and imagining that the old age of the former caused in her that aversion and as he was not much concerned whether she was satisfied or not to be Queen of France provided she were so he thought it best in that conjuncture to make a matter of state of it But the King with whom he was to negotiate being prepossessed to the contrary as well as the Princess gave him no more satisfaction than she had done and when he was pressed to speak his mind he answered him That a proposition wherein all Europe was concerned sounded not well from the mouth of a Prisoner Yet for all this the Duke was not discouraged He wrote to the King his Master and with his Letter sent the Picture of Mary of England and being a more successful negotiator at distance than in presence the affairs of Italy being now somewhat composed by the death of Pope Julius to whom LEO the Tenth succeeded and the Ministers of France finding their advantages in an alliance with England he received an answer according to his desire Then it was that poor Suffolk perceived his ruin manifest The Duke of Longueville was the first that drew his blood at the Battel of Spurs he was the first that infected his mind with the sullen poyson of jealousie which troubled all his delights at London and as a fatal enemy was now to disquiet the rest of his days And indeed he strove no more to resist the matter nor did he so much as seek ease by complaining lest that by flattering so his grief it might break out against his will and that his virtue whereof he then stood so much in need should be weakened thereby It was to no purpose for the Princess to discourse him about that subject It was to no purpose for her to employ all her Charms with him and to upbraid him with the sharpest cuts of Love that she found he loved her no more since that he yielded her to another for he had not only the power to be silent before her but he maintained to the last that rigorous conflict wherein nothing but the love oâ— her made him resist and the King his Master with all his dexterity and goodness produced but still less effects on him Never was there so much constancy in so tender and afflicted a soul He entertained the Princess Mary no more but with the Grandure and Beauties of France He urged to her by solid reasons that the most glorious passion was the desire to reign over the most illustrious people of the Universe He went farther to encourage her by pretending that his own interest was therein concerned and as if he had been the most covetous of all men who was indeed the most liberal he seemed only then possessed with the hopes of the great riches that he expected from her Crown The soul must without doubt be great which can love in that strain and ordinary passions are unable to renounce themselves in that manner But the fair Princess to whom he rendered so rare an instance of a perfect love repayed it by another no less wonderful on her part The Crown of France seemed nothing to her in respect of Suffolks heart and being sensible to the utmost of the unspeakable pleasure that is found in being loved as one loves that was to her so Soveraign a blessing that no other earthly advantage could equal it She disputed therefore with him the possession of his heart which she desired still to enjoy as he contended for the loss of hers which he was willing she should deprive him of and her lovely eyes bore already the marks of the wrong which the
the Duke of Suffolk This bereft him of all comfort for the rest of his days and being unable to abide longer at Court as well because of that loss as of the disorders of his King which encreased with age he choose rather to command the Army against the Rebels in Yorkshire where he fully crowned his Glory He had five Children by the Queen whereof the two Males dyed both in one day of the distemper which is called the English Sweating-sickness and of his three Daughters who were all married to the greatest Lords of the Kingdom the eldest named Frances married to Henry Gray Son to the Marquess of Dorset his intimate friend was the cause of his death She falling sick in one of her Countrey-houses and he loving that dear Daughter the more because she perfectly resembled his deceased Queen used so great diligence to come to her that he thereby dyed Thus the Prophesie of Merlin may be seen fulfilled in his person supposing that he had been the Grand-child of the Duke of Clarence Since that how innocent soever that daughter was of his Death yet the too great zeal that he had for her was that which destroyed him At least to judg by the event the words of that Astrologer seem pretty just The only thing that can make me doubt of it is the little care that I see in him during his life to make known his secret Quality of a Prince of York What tyranny soever may oblige a Prince to conceal himself for a time yet if he have a great and generous soul as Suffolk had it is hard for him to continue always obscure and truely royal blood soon or late becomes conspicuous in Heroes Vnless it may be said of him that the possession of what he loved having fulfilled all his desires he feared either to disturb his own felicity by discovering himself or to wrong his Children who according to the custom of England would have certainly been put to death upon the least suspicion of the truth FINIS Some Books Printed and are to be Sold by W. Cademan at the Popes-head in the New-Exchange PHaramond or the History of France a fam'd Romance in 12 Parts the whole work never before in English written by the Author of Cassandra and Cleopatra Fol. Parthanissa that most fam'd Romance in 6 Parts written by the Right Honourable the Earl of Orrery in Fol. Books 4 to Protestant Religion is a sure Foundation and Principle of a true Christian written by Charles Earl of Derby Historical Relations of the first discovery of the Island of Madera A Warning to the Unruly in two Visitation-Sermons Preached before the Arch-Bishop of York by Seth Bushell D. D. The great Efficacy of the Clergy a Visitation-Sermon by Tho. Duncomb D. D. Mr. Barn's Sermon Preached before the King Mr. Pigol's Sermon Preached before the Judges at Lancaster Books 8 vo Philosophical Essays or the History of Petrificatio by Thomas Sherley Dr. in Physick The History of Scurvey-Grass being an exact and careful description of the Nature and Medicinal vertues of that Plant teaching how to prepare out of it plain and approved Remedies for the Scurvey and most other Diseases as well Galenical as Chymical which are to be had of Scurvey-grass-Ale confirmed by Reason Experience and Authority The Spanish History or a Relation of the Differences that happened in the Court of Spain between Don John of Austria and Cardinal Nitard with other Transactions of that Kingdom together with all the Letters that past between Persons of the highest Quality relating to those affairs PLAYS Rival a Comedy Island-Princes Comedy Flora's Vagaries Comedy Town-shifts a Comedy Citizen turn'd Gentleman Comedy Morning-Ramble Comedy Careless Lovers Comedy Reformation Comedy Mall or Modish Lovers Comedy Rehersal a Comedy Mock-Tempest a Comedy Dumb Lady a Comedy Dutch-Lovers a Comedy Setle against Dryden Herod and Mariamne Love and Revenge Conquest of China Constant Nimph. Pastor Fide Tom Essence a Comedy Wandring Lovers Catalius Conspiracy Tragedy Fatal Jealousie Mackbeth English-Princess Marcelia Spanish-Rogue Piso's Conspiracy Alcibiades Siege of Memphis Cambyâ—â—â— Empress of Morocco