Spectators rather are conceived to have accelerated his Death which hapned November the 15. 1634. and was buried in the Abbey Church at Westminster all present at his Burial doing Homage to this aged Thomas de temporibus There was if not still living in Northumberland a Scottish Minister named Michael Vivan a Person who may give just matter of Admiration both to the present and future Ages as by the perusing of this ensuing Letter may appear written by a Person of Quality to Dr. Fuller and by him inserted into his England's Worthies THere is an Acquaintance of mine and a Friend of yours who certified me of your desire of being satisfied of the truth of that Relation I made concerning the old Minister in the North. It fortuned in my Journey to Scotland I lay at Alnwick in Northumberland one Sunday by the way and understanding from the Host of the House where I lodged that this Minister lived within three miles of that place I took my Horse after Dinner and rid thither to hear him preach for my own satisfaction I found him in the Desk where he read unto us some part of the Common-Prayer some of Holy David's Psalms and two Chapters one out of the Old the other out of the New Testament without the use of Spectacles The Bible out of which he read the Chapters was a very small printed Bible He went afterwards into his Pulpit where he prayed and preached unto us about an hour and half His Text was Seek you the Kingdom of God and all hings shall be added unto you In my poor Judgment he made an excellent good Sermon and went clearly through without the help of any Notes After Sermon I went with him to his House where I proposed these several following Questions to him Whether it was true the Book reported of him concerning his Hair whether or no he had a new set of Teeth come whether or no his Eye-sight ever failed him and whether in any measure he found his strength renewed unto him He answered me distinctly to all these and told me he understood the News-book reported his Hair to become a dark brown again but that is false he took his Cap off and shewed me it It is come again like a Child's but rather flaxen than either brown or gray For his Teeth he hath three come within these two years not yet at their Perfection while he bred them he was very ill Forty years since he could not read the biggest print without Spectacles and now he blesseth God there is no print so small but he can read without them For his strength he thinks himself as strong now as he hath been these twenty years Not long since he walked to Alnwick to dinner and back again six North-Countrey miles He is now an hundred and ten years of age and ever since last May a hearty Body very chearful but stoops much He had five Children after he was eighty years of age four of them lusty Lasses now living with him the other died lately his Wife yet hardly fifty years of age He writes himself Machel Vivan he is a Scottish-man born near Aberdeen I forget the Towns name where he is now Pastor he hath been there fifty years Windsor 28 Sept. 1657. Your assured loving Friend THOMAS ATKIN An Example of Divine Vengeance pursuing Sinners IN the Year 1614. ten English-men having received the Sentence of Death for their several Crimes at the Sessions-House at the Old-Bayly in London had their Execution respited by the intreaty of the East-India Merchants upon Condition that they should be all banished to Souldania-Bay to the end if they could find any peaceable abode there they might discover something advantagious to their Trade and this was accordingly done But two of them when they came thither were taken thence and carried on the Voyage one whose Sir-name was Duffield by Sir Thomas Row that Year sent Ambassador to the Great Mogol that Fellow thus redeemed from a most sad Banishment was afterward brought back again into England by that noble Gentleman and here being intrusted by him stole some of his Plate and run away another was carried on the Voyage likewise but what became of him afterward is not known so that there remained eight which were there left with some Ammunition and Victual with a small Boat to carry them to and from a very little uninhabited Island lying in the very mouth of that Bay a place for their retreat and safety from the Natives on the Main The Island called Pen-guin Island probably so named at first by some Welsh-man in whose Language Pen-guin signifies a White-head and there are many great lazy Fowls upon and about this Island with great cole black Bodies and very white Heads called Pen-guins The chief man of the eight there left was sir-named Cross who took upon him the name of Captain Cross He was formerly Yeoman of the Guard to King James but having had his Hand in Blood twice or thrice by men slain by him in several Duels and now being condemned to die with the rest upon very great Sute made for him he was hither banished with them whither the Justice of Almighty God was dispatched after him as it were in a Whirl-wind and followed him close at the very heels and over-took him and left him not till he had paid dear for that Blood he had formerly spilt This Cross was a very stout and a very resolute man who quarrelling with and abusing the Natives and engaging himself far amongst them immediately after himself with the rest were left in that place many of these Savages being got together fell upon him and with their Darts thrown and Arrows shot at him stuck his Body so full of them as if he had been larded with Darts and Arrows making him look like the Figure of the man in the Almanack that seems to be wounded in every part or like that man described by Lucan Totum pro vulnere corpus who was all Wound where Blood touched Blood a just Retaliation of God for his Cruelty shewed unto others The other seven the rest of these miserable Banditi who were there with Cross recovered their Boat and got off the Shore without any great hurt and so rowing to their Island the Waves running high they split their Boat at their landing which engaged them to keep in that place they having now no possible means left to stir thence And which made their Condition whilst they were in it extreamly miserable it was a place wherein grew never a Tree neither for Sustenance or Shelter or Shade nor any thing beside to help sustain Nature a place that had never a drop of fresh Water in it but what the showers left in the holes of the Rocks And besides all this there were a very great number of Snakes in that Island so many of those venemous Worms that a man could not tread safely in the long Grass which grew in it for fear of them And
Elionara Sister to the King of Portugal at Bruges in Flanders which was solemnized in the deep of Winter whenas by reason of unseasonable Weather he could neither hawk nor hunt and was now tired with Cards Dice c. and such other domestical Sports or to see Ladies dance with some of his Courtiers he would in the Evening walk disguised all about the Town It so fortuned as he was walking late one Night he found a Country-Fellow dead drunk snorting on a Bulk he caused his Followers to bring him to his Palace and there stripped him of his old Cloaths and attired him after the Court Fashion when he waked he and they were ready to attend upon his Excellency persuading him he was some great Duke The poor Fellow admiring how he came thither was served in state all the day long After Supper he saw them dance heard Musick and the rest of those Court-like Pleasures but late at night when he was well tipled and again fast asleep they put on his old Cloaths and so conveyed him to the place where they first found him Now the Fellow had not made them so good sport the day before as he did when he returned to himself all the Jest was to see how he looked upon it In conclusion after some little Admiration the poor man told his Friends he had seen a Vision constantly believed it would not otherwise be persuaded and so the Jest ended Memorials of Thomas Coriat the famous Odcombian Traveller MR. Thomas Coriat was born at Odcombe nigh Evil in Somerset-shire and bred at Oxford where he attained to admirable fluency in the Greek Tongue he was a Man in his Time Notus nimis omnibus very sufficiently known one who seemed to carry Folly in his Face the shape of his Head being like a Sugar-loaf inverted with the little end before but such as conceived him Fool ad duo and something else ad decem were utterly mistaken for he drave on no Design cared for Coin and Counters alike so contented with what was present that he accounted those men guilty of Superfluity who had more Suits and Shirts than Bodies seldom putting off either till they were ready to go away from him Noble Prince Henry King James his Son allowed him a Pension and kept him for his Servant Sweet-meats and Coriat made up the last Course at all Court-Entertainments indeed he was the Courtiers Anvil to try their Wits upon and sometimes this Anvil returned the Hammers as hard Knocks as it received his Bluntness repaying their Abusiveness He being addicted to travel took a Journey into several places of Europe and at his Return made a Book thereof known by the name of Coriat's Crudities printed about the year 1611. being ushered into the World by very many Copies of excellent Verses made by the Wits of those times which made one to say that the Porch was more worth than the Palace the Preface of other mens mock-commending Verses than the Book it self however they did very much advantage and improve if not enforce the Sale thereof doing themselves much more Honour than him whom they undertook to commend in their several Encomiasticks Now because the Book is very scarce and hard to come by I shall give you a Copy of one of their Encomiums there being about sixty in all by which you may give a guess at the rest To the no less learned than wise and discreet Gentleman Mr. Thomas Coriat in some few Months Travels born and brought up to what you see viz. To be the delight of a world of noble Wits to be a shame to all Authors as the Gout and Quartane Fever have been to all Physicians This plain Song sendeth Christopher Brooke his poor Friend to attend the Descant of his famous Book thorough all Hands Tongues Arts Trades Mysteries and Occupations whatsoever THE subtile Greek Ulysses needs must travel Ten years sorsooth over much Sand and Gravel And many Cities see and Manners know Before there could be writ a Book or two Of his Adventures and he travell'd still Else there are Lyars sore against his Will But this rare English-Latin-Grecian Of Orators and Authors the Black Swan A voluntary Journey undertook Of scarce six Months and yet hath writ a Book Bigger than Homer's and tho' writ in Prose As full of Poetry spite of Homer's Nose If he liv'd now that in Darius Casket Plac'd the poor Iliads he had bought a Basket Of richer stuff t' intomb thy Volume large Which thou O noble Tom at thine own charge Art pleas'd to print but thou need'st not repent Of this thy bitter cost for thy brave Precedent Great Caesar is who penned his own Gests And as some write recited them at Feasts And at 's own Charge had printed them they say If printing had been used at that day The Press hath spent the three for one you got At your Return What 's that Poor thing God wot Manure this Land still with such Books my Friend And you shall be paid for it in the end For I methinks see how men strive to carry This jovial Journal into each Library And we e're long shall well perceive your Wit Grave learned Bodley by your placing it Therefore lanch forth great Book like Ship of Fame Th' Hopewel of Odcombe thou shalt have to name Explicit Christopherus Brook Eboracensis Amongst others that writ mock-commendatory Verses of this Book of Crudities was John Taylor the Water-Poet which though of the same nature with the other yet gave great offence to Mr. Coriat complaining of him therefore to King James The Verses were these What matters for the place I first came from I am no Dunce-comb Cox-comb Odcombe Tom Nor am I like a Wool-pack cramb'd with Greek Venus in Venice minded to go seek And at my back-return to write a Volume In memory of my Wits Gargantua Columne The choicest Wits would never so adore me Nor like so many Lacquies run before me But honest Tom I envy not thy state There 's nothing in thee worthy of my hate Yet I confess thou hast an excellent Wit But that an idle Brain doth harbour it Fool thou it at the Court I on the Thames So farewel Odcombe Tom God bless King James Afterwards Taylor wrote a Book called Laugh and be fat wherein he paraphrased upon all those Gentlemen that had written on Mr. Coriat's Book which Book by the Command of King James he procured to be burnt and afterwards adding more Complaints against Taylor to the King his Majesty was pleased to tell him that when the Lords of his Honourable Privy Council had leisure and nothing else to do then they should hear and determine the Differences betwixt Mr. Coriat the Scholar and John Taylor the Sculler Whereupon Taylor wrote these following Verses to the King Most mighty Monarch of this famous Isle Upon the Knees of my submissive mind I beg thou wilt be graciously inclin'd To read these Lines my rustick Pen compile Know Royal Sir
bear affection to a young Maid upon the breaking thereof to her Friends the fashion is that a day is appointed for their Friends to meet to behold the two young Parties to run a Race together The Maid is allowed in starting the advantage of a third part of the Race so that it is impossible except willing of her self that she should ever be overtaken If the Maid over-run her Suiter the matter is ended he must never have her it being penal for the man again to renew the motion of Marriage But if the Virgin hath an Affection for him tho' at the first running hard to try the Truth of his Love she will without Atalanta's golden Balls to retard her speed pretend some Casualty and make a voluntary hault before she cometh to the Mark or end of the Race Thus none are compelled to marry against their own Wills and this is the cause that in this poor Country the married People are richer in their own Contentment than in other Lands where so many forced Matches make feigned Love and cause real Unhappiness Of Spirits or Devils and that they have had carnal Knowledge of People PHilostratus in his fourth Book de vita Apollonii relateth of one Menippus Lycius a young Man 25 years of Age that going betwixt Cenchreas and Corinth met a Phantasm in the Habit of a fair Gentlewoman which taking him by the Hand carried him home to her House in the Suburbs of Corinth and told him she was a Phoenician by Birth and if he would tarry with her he should hear her sing and play and drink such Wine as never any drank and no man should molest him but she being fair and lovely would live and die with him that was fair and lovely to behold The young man a Philosopher otherwise stay'd and discreet able to moderate his Passions though not this of Love tarried with her a while to his great Content and at last married her to whose Wedding among other Guests came Apollonius who by some probable Conjectures found her out to be a Serpent a Lamia and that all her Furniture was like Tantalus's Gold described by Homer no Substance but mere Illusions When she saw her self descried she wept and desired Apollonius to be silent but he would not be moved and thereupon she Plate House and all that was in it vanished in an instant Multi factum cognovere quod in media Gracia gestum fit Many thousands took notice of this Fast for it was done in the midst of Greece Sabine in his Comment on the tenth of Ovid's Metamorphosis at the Tale of Orphaeus telleth us of a Gentleman of Bavaria that for many Months together bewailed the loss of his dear Wife at length the Devil in her Habit came and comforted him and told him because he was so importunate for her that she would come and live with him again on that condition he would be new married never swear and blaspheme as he used formerly to do for if he did she should be gone He vowed it married and lived with her she brought him Children and governed his House but was still pale and sad and so continued till one day falling out with him he fell a swearing she vanished thereupon and was never after seen This Story saith he I have heard from Persons of good Credit which told him that the Duke of Bavaria did tell it for a certainty to the Duke of Saxony Florilegus an honest Historian of our own Nation telleth us that in Anno 1058. a young Gentleman of Rome the same day that he was married after Dinner with the Bride and his Friends went a walking into the Fields and towards Evening to the Tennis Gourt to recreate themselves whilst he played he put his Ring upon the Finger of the Statue of Venus which was there by made in Brass After he had sufficiently played and now made an end of his Sport he came to fetch his Ring but Venus had bowed her Finger in and he could not get it off whereupon loth to make his Company tarry at present there left it intending to fetch it the next day or at some more convenient time went thence to Supper and so to Bed In the night when he should come to perform those Nuptial Rites Venus steps between him and his Wife unseen or felt of her and told him that she was his Wife that he had betrothed himself unto her by that Ring which he put upon her Finger she troubled him for some following Nights He not knowing how to help himself made his moan to one Palumbus a learned Magician in those days who gave him a Letter and bid him at such a time of the Night in such a cross-way at the Towns-end where old Saturn would pass by with his Associates in Procession as commonly he did deliver that Script with his own hands to Saturn himself the young man of a bold Spirit accordingly did it and when the old Fiend had read it he called Venus to him who rode before him and commanded her to deliver his Ring which forthwith she did and so the Gentleman was freed Hector Boetius the Scottish Historian writes that in the Year 1480. it chanced as a Scottish Ship departed out of the Forth towards Flanders there rose a wonderful great Tempest of Wind and Weather so out-ragious that the Master of the Ship with other the Mariners wondered not a little what the matter meant to see such Weather that time of the Year for it was about the midst of Summer At length when the furious rage of the Winds still increased in such wise that all those within the Ship looked for present Death there was a Woman underneath the Hatches called unto them above and willed them to throw her into the Sea that all the residue by God's Grace might yet be saved and thereupon told them how she had been haunted a long time with a Spirit daily coming unto her in man's Likeness and that even as then he was with her using his filthy Pleasure after the manner of carnal Copulation In the Ship there chanced also to be a Priest who by the Master's appointment going down to this Woman and finding her like a most wretched and desperate Person lamenting her great Misfortune and miserable Estate used such wholsome Admonitions and comfortable Advertisements willing her to repent and hope for Mercy at the hands of Almighty God that at length she seeming right penitent for her grievous Offences committed and fetching sundry Sighs even from the bottom of her Heart being witness as should appear of the same there issued forth of the Pump of the Ship a foul and evil favour'd black Cloud with a mighty terrible Noise Flame Smoak and Stink which presently fell into the Sea and suddenly thereupon the Tempest ceased and the Ship passing in quiet the residue of her Journey arrived in safety at the place whither she was bound Not long before the hap hereof there was in like
manner a young man dwelling in Gareoth within a Village there not passing fourteen miles from Aberdeen right fair and comely of Shape who declared by way of Complaint unto the Bishop of that Diocese how there was a Spirit which haunted him in the shape of a Woman so fair and beautiful a thing that he never saw the like the which would come into his Chamber a Nights and with pleasant Enticements allure him to have to do with her and that by no manner of means he could be rid of her The Bishop like a wise Man advised him to remove into some other Country and to give himself to Fasting and Prayer so to avoid his hands of that wicked Spirit The Young man following the Bishop's Counsel within few days was delivered from further Temptation About the same time also there vvas in the Country of Mar a young Gentlewoman of excellent Beauty and Daughter unto a Noble-man there refusing sundry wealthy Marriages offered to her by her Father and other Friends At length she proved with Child and being rigorously compelled by her Patents to tell who was the Father she confessed that a certain young man used nightly to come unto her and keep her Company and sometimes in the day also but how or from whence he came or by what means he went away she was not able to declare Her Parents not greatly crediting her Words laid diligent Watch to understand what he was that had defiled their House and within three days after upon signification given by one of the Maidens that the Fornicator was at that very Instant with their Daughter incontinently thereupon making fast the doors they enter the Chamber with a great many of Torches and Lights vvhere they find in their Daughter's Arms a foul monstrous thing right horrible to behold Here a number coming hastily in to behold this evil favour'd sight amongst other there was a Priest of right honest Life who seeing some of them running their ways for fear began to recite the beginning of St. John's Gospel and coming to these Words Verbum caro factum est suddenly the wicked Spirit making a terrible roaring Noise flevv his vvays taking the Roof of the Chamber with him the Hangings and Coverings of the Bed being also burn'd therewith The Gentlewoman was yet preserved and within three or four days after was delivered of such a mishapen thing as the like before had not been seen which the Midwives and Women present at her Labour to avoid the dishonour of her House immediately burn'd in a great Fire made in the Chamber for the same intent John Major in the Life of John the Monk that lived in the days of Theodosius commends this Monk to have been a Man of singular Continency and of a most austere Life but one Night by chance the Devil came to his Cell in the habit of a young Market-Wench that had lost her way and desired for God's sake some Lodging with him The old man let her in and after some common Conference of her mishap she began to inveigle him with lascivious Talk and Jests to play with his Beard to kiss him and do worse till at last she overcame him As he went to address himself to that business she vanished on a sudden and the Devils in the Air laughed him to Scorn We shall conclude this Discourse with a Story of a later date how that in a small Village in one of the Northern Islands there dwelt an ancient Boor and his Wife who had but one Child and that a Daughter whom they looked upon as the staff of their declining Age she was just entered into her nineteenth Year and gave great hopes of proving an excellent Woman being very saving industrious and handsom which good Qualities had invited most of the young-men of her Rank throughout the Country to take particular notice of her and list themselves her Servants But she like a discreet Maid still check'd her roving Fancy and was deaf to all their flattering Courtship resolving to entertain no Addresses which should not be authorized by her Parents Approbation and well had it been she had never suffer'd her self to be divorced from that Resolution for so it chanced that within a while after the Devil came in the Likeness of a man and took up his Lodging within two or three doors of her Father's House pretending his Business was to look after some Debts he had owing him not far from thence he was a Person of a proper Stature meagre Visage large sparling Eyes long Hair but curling and exceeding black he generally went in Boots perhaps to conceal his cloven feet and though his Habit was but ordinary he appeared very full of Money which made his Landlord very sweet upon him and the more to oblige him there happening a Wedding in that Town within few days after his Arrival his Host would needs carry this his strange Guest with him to it though it was observed he could by no means be got into the Church where the Nuptial Rites were solemnized but as soon as they came home to Dinner he was as busie and as merry as the joviallest of them And here it was that the fatal Acquaintance between him and Margaretta for so was the Maiden called unhappily first begun That time allowing a greater Liberty of Discourse to the younger sort amongst whom commonly one Wedding is the begetter of another furnish'd our black Stranger with the larger opportunity to court this innocent Maid to her destruction To repeat the particular Complements he used we purposely omit lest we should injure the Devils Eloquence by our Courser Rhetorick suffice it to know his devillish Courtship was so charming as to raise an unknown Passion in her Virgin Breast who so far doated on his Company as to be sorry when all the Companies breaking up obliged them to part so that being come home and after some time got into her Chamber she makes her unready but not without a thousand kind Thoughts on this Stranger she had left whom at last just as she was going into her Bed she saw come into the Chamber you may easily imagine her not a little surprized at so strange an Adventure knowing all the Doors fast lock'd and no body up but her self but he soon superseded both her Fears and Wonder by telling her in submissive Language that he came out of pure love â—o have a little free discourse with her and that he had an Art to open any Lock without Noise or Discovery Then beginning to talk amorously and having wantonized a while he told her at last in plain Terms he was resolved to lye with her that Night Merry Company before and his Dalliances now had raised such a spring-Tide in her Veins that after a few faint formal Denials to gratifie her Modesty she consents but no sooner were they in Bed but her Ears were courted with the most excellent Musick in the World which so captivated the Spirits of this
denied the same the Emperour asketh him for his Proofs he takes his Outh of it but could produce no other Witnesses The Emperour bids him to stay in another Room enquiring of him what manner of Bag it was wherein the Money was put Then purposing to send for the man it fell out that he amongst other Citizens came to salute and welcome the Emporour The Emperour knowing the man said to him O Sir methinks you have a very handsome Hat pray thee give it me the Citizen gave it and took it for an Honour that the Emperour would accept of it then did he withdraw himself and sent a Servant to this Man's Wife desiring her from her Husband to send him such a Money-bag describing of it and that said he you may know that I come from your Husband he gave me his Hat for a Token The Woman sought out the Bag and gave it him the Emperour shews the Merchant the Bag who knew it and rejoyced at the sight of it Then the Emperour calling the Citizen tells him that this man had complained to him that he had cozened him of a Sum of Money delivered into his Custody the Citizen denies and swares that none was delivered to him the Emperour produceth the Bag the Citizen was confounded and faulters in his words whereupon the Emperour causeth him to pay the Merchant to the full and sets a good fine upon his head besides and so the business was ended Of the great friendship betwixt Damon and Pithias two Pythagorean Philosophers THese two Friends were both of them Students of Pythagoras's Learning it so happened that one of them was accused to have conspired against Dionysius King of Sicilie for which they were both taken and brought before the King who immediately gave sentence that he who was accused should be put to death This Judgment being passed on him he desired of the King that ' ere he died he might return home to set his houshold in order and to distribute his goods whereat the King laughing demanded of him scornfully what pledge he would leave him to come again At which words his Companion stept forth and said that he would remain there as a Pledge for his Friend that in case he came not again at the day appointed he willingly would lose his Head Which Condition the Tyrant received and the young man that should have dyed was suffered to depart home to his House where he did set all things in order and disposed his Goods as he thought meet The day appointed for his Return being come and most part of it past the King called for him that was Pledge who came forth merrily without any shew of Fear and freely offered to abide the Sentence of the Tyrant willing to dye for the saving the Life of his Friend But as the Officer of Justice had closed his Eyes with a Kerchief and had drawn his Sword to have stricken off his Head his Fellow came running and crying That the day of his Appointment was not yet fully past wherefore he desired the Minister of Justice to loose his Fellow and to prepare to do Execution on him that had given the occasion Whereat the Tyrant being much abashed commanded both of them to be brought to his Presence and when he had enough wondered at their noble Dispositions and their Constancy in Friendship he offering to them great Rewards desired them to receive him into their Company and so doing them much Honour did set them at Liberty Another of Christian Friendship UNDER the seventh Persecution Theodora a godly Virgin for her Religion was condemned to the Stews where her Chastity was to be a Prey to all Comers which Sentence being executed many wanton young men were ready to press into the House But one of the brethren called Didymus putting on a Soldiers habit would have the first turn and so going in perswaded her to change Garments with him and so she in the Soldiers habit escaped and Didymus being found a man was carried before the President to whom he confessed the whole matter and so was condemned Theodora hearing of it thinking to excuse him came and presented her self as the guilty Party desiring that she might die and the other be excused but the merciless Judge caused them both to be put to death The admirable love and affection betwixt Titus and Gisippus two Noble young men the one of Rome the other of Athens THere was in the City of Rome a noble Senator named Fulvius who sent his Son called Titus being a child to the City of Athens in Greece the fountain then of good Letters there to learn and be instructed boarding him with a worshipful man of that City called Chremes This Chremes had a Son named Gisippus who not onely was equal to the said young Titus in years but also in stature proportion of body favour countenance and speech in a word so like that without much difficulty it could not be discerned of their own Parents which was Titus from Gisippus or Gisippus from Titus These two young Gentlemen as they seemed to be one in form and personage so shortly after acquaintance the same Nature wrought in their hearts such a mutual affection that their wills and appetites daily more and more so confederated themselves that it seemed no other when their names were declared but that they had onely changed their places issuing as I might say out of one body and entring into the other They went to their Learning and Study together as also to their Meals and Pastimes delighted both in one doctrine and profited equally therein with such fruitful encrease that in few years scarce any in Athens were comparable unto them At last died Chremes leaving his Son Gisippus a vast Estate and being now of ripe years his friends and kindred were at him to marry as also his friend Titus thereby to propagate his Posterity They having found one in all respects answerable unto him with much importunity he was contented to go and see her whom he liked so well that he became greatly enamoured of her taking great delight in the contemplation of her most excellent beauty and rare endowments of mind But no happiness could betide him without his friend participated with him therefore on a time he took Titus along with him to see this Idol of his Soul who having beheld so Heavenly a personage adorned with Beauty inexplicable such an amiable countenance mixt with maidenly shamefac'dness and the rare and sober words so well couched proceeding from her pretty mouth struck him with so much admiration that neither the Study of Philosophy nor the remembrance of his dear friend Gisippus who so much loved and trusted him could put the remembrance of her out of his mind so that withdrawing himself as it were into his Study tormented and oppressed with Love he threw himself on a Bed and there ruminating upon what was passed and thereby his unkindness to his dear friend Gisippus he began to curss
Gold bound up in a white Napkin telling her that God had now remembred her Husband and sent him his pay for his constant pains taken in his Devotion withall charging her not to send for her Husband for though he had taken such a solemn leave of her that morning yet he would come home again to her that Night and so he departed from her The Woman presently bought in some necessaries for her house for they had eaten up all before and further made some good provision for her Husband against his coming home in the evening for so he did and finding all his Family very chearful and merry his Wife presently told him that there had been such a one there as before described and left so much Gold behind him with that fore-mentioned message delivered with it Her Husband presently replyed that it was the Angel Gabriel sent from God for the Mahometans speak much of that Angel and he further added that himself had nothing to bring home unto her but a little Grett or Sand which he took up in his way homeward and bound it in his Girdle which he presently opening to shew her it was all turn'd into precious Stones which amounted unto a very great value in Money the seventh part of which as of his Gold likewise he presently gave to the poor for say they Musulmen are very charitable and infer that if we do not neglect God God will not forget us but when we stand most in need of help will supply us Unto which conclusion we may all subscribe leaving the Premises which are laid down in this Story unto those that dare believe them Of a strange Murther related by Sanderson in his History of King James IN the Year of our Lord 1618. there lived a man at Perin in Cornwal who had been blessed with an ample Possession and fruitful Issue unhappy only in a younger Son who taking Liberty from his Father's Bounty joyned with a Crew like himself who weary of the Land went roving to Sea and in a small Vessel South-ward made Prize of all whom they could master and so increased in Wealth Number and Strength that in the Streights they adventured upon a Turk's Man of War where they got a great Booty but their Powder by mischance taking Fire our Gallant trusting to his skilful swimming got to shore upon the Isle of Rhodes with the best of his Jewels about him where after a while offering some of them to sale to a Jew he knew them to be the Governour 's of Algier whereupon he was apprehended and for a Pirate condemned to the Gallies amongst other Christians whose miserable Slavery made them use their Wits to recover their former Liberty and accordingly watching their opportunity they slew some of their Officers and valiantly released themselves After which this young man got aboard an English Ship and came safe to London where his former Misery and some skill that he had gotten that way preferred him to be Servant to a Chirurgion who after a while sent him to the East-Indies there by his Diligence and Industry he got Money with which he returned home and longing to see his Native Country Cornwal in a small Ship from London he sailed Westward but e're he attained his Port he was cast away upon that Coast where once more his excellent skill in swimming brought him safe to shore but then having been fifteen years absent he understood that his Father was much decayed in his Estate and had retired himself to live privately in a place not far off being indeed in Debt and Danger His Sister he finds married to a Mercer a meaner Match than her Birth promised to her he at first appeared as a poor Stranger but after a while privately reveals himself to her shewing her what Jewels and Gold he had concealed in a Bow-case about him and concluded that the next day he intended to appear to his Parents yet to keep his Disguise till she and her Husband should come thither to make their common Joy compleat Being come to his Parents his humble Behaviour sutable to his poor Sute of Cloaths melted the old Couple into so much Compassion as to give him shelter from the cold Season under their outward Roof and by degrees his Stories of his Travellings and Sufferings told with much Passion to the aged People made him their Guest so long by the Kitchin Fire that the Husband bad them Good Night and went to Bed and soon after his true Stories working Compassion in the weaker Vessel she wept and so did he but withal he taking pity of her Tears comforted her with a piece of Gold which gave her Assurance that he deserved a Lodging which she afforded him and to which she brought him and being in Bed he shewed her his Wealth which was girded about him a very indiscreet Act for by revealing his Wealth and concealing who he was he wrought his own utter Destruction For the old Woman being tempted with the golden Bait that she had received and greedily thirsting after the enjoyment of the rest she went to her Husband and awaking him presented him with this News and her Contrivance what farther to do and though with horrid Apprehensions he oft refused yet her pewling Eloquence Eve's Enchantments moved him at last to consent and to rise to be Master of all that Wealth by murthering the Owner thereof which accordingly they did and withal covered the Corps with Cloaths till opportunity served for their carrying it away The early Morning hastens the Sister to her Fathers House where with signs of great Joy she enquires for a Sailer that should lodge there the last Night The old Folk at first denyed that they had seen any such till she told them that he was her Brother and lost Brother which she knew assuredly by a Scar upon his Arm cut with a Sword in his Youth and that they were resolved to meet there the next Morning and be merry The Father hearing this hastily run up into the Room and finding the mark as his Daughter had told him with horrid regret of this monstrous Murther of his own Son with the same Knife wherewith he had killed him he cut his own Throat The Mother anon after going up to consult with her Husband what to do in a strange manner beholding them both weltring in Blood wild and agast finding the Instrument at hand readily rips up her own Belly till the Guts tumbled out The Daughter wondering at their delay in returning seeks about for them whom she found out too soon and with the sad sight of this bloody Scene being overcome with sudden Horror and Amazement for this deluge of Destruction she sunk down and died The Names of these Parties were concealed in favour of some Neighbours of Repute and Kin to the Family The Custom of Lapland for the marrying of their Daughters IT is Death in Lapland to marry a Maid without her Parents or Friends Consent wherefore if one