is made the Cabinet for this grave Council there the King soon appears attended by all the bravest and ablest Spirits of the Kingdom The act of the first conference tends to the security of Berwick the street-door of the North and principal Key of the borders This care with a full provision is committed to the Fidelity and Valour of Sir Peter Spalden who undertakes the charge being plentifully furnisht and promiseth defence against the united Power of Scotland This unfortunate King was as unhappy in Councel as in Action A short time shews this unworthy Knight to the world false and perfidious Robert le Bruce that had this Strength as a mote in his eye conceived it by force almost impregnable this made him seek to undermine it by corruption and aloof off to taste the palate of this new Governour The Hook was no sooner baited but the Trout falls a nibbling ready Money and a specious promise of an expectant Preferment makes this Conspiracy perfect which at one blow sells the Town with all its warlike Provisions and the treacherous Keeper's Reputation and Honour The Pope who with a pious and a truely compassionate eye beheld the misery of this Dissention and the unnatural effusion of so much Christian Bloud seeks to reform it and to this effect sends over two of his Cardinals to mediate a Peace and to compose if it might be the differences in question They being arrived in England come down into the North to the King by whom they are with great Ceremony according to the fashion of those Religious Times received and welcomed They discourse to him the occasion of their Employment and encline him with many excellent and vertuous motives to embrace a Peace with Scotland The greenness of the Disgrace and the late Wound yet bleeding new kept him in a long demurrer Yet the holy and milde prosecution of these holy Fathers won him at length to their Mediation with a proviso that he were not too far prejudiced in Interest and Honour With this Answer they take their leave and prosecute their Journey for Scotland but with an example full of barbarous Inhumanity they are in the way surpriz'd and robbed Infinitely is the King incens'd with this audacious act which threw so foul a stain upon the whole Nation which causeth a strict inquisition for the discovery of these Malefactors which are soon known and taken Middleton and Selby both Knights expiate the offence with their shameful Execution The persons of Embassadours amongst the most savage Nations are free from rapine but being cloathed in the habit of Religion and such a Greatness and going in a work so good and glorious certainly it was an act deserv'd so severe a punishment Immediately at the heels of this follows another Example less infamous but far more full of danger Sir Josline Denvile having wasted his estate and not able to lessen the height of his former expences gets into his society a Regiment of Ruffians terming themselves Out-laws with these he infests the North with many outragious Riots insomuch that no man that had any thing to loose could be secure in his own house from Murder Theft and Rapine A little time had brought this little Army rowling like a Snow-ball to the number of 200 all the diseased flux of the corrupted humours of those parts flye to this Imposthume An Attempt so impudent and daring flyes swiftly to the Kings knowledg Report that seldom lessens makes the danger far greater than it deserv'd The Royal ear conceits it little better than a flat Rebellion whose apprehension felt it self guilty of matter enough to work on This made an instant levy and as ready a dispatch for the suppression of the flame while it but burnt the suburbs Experience soon returns the Fear is found greater than the Cause the principal Heads and Props of this Commotion are surprized and fall under the severity of that Law whose protection they in this enterprize had absolutely disclaimed Those that more narrowly examin'd the depth of this Convention believ'd it but a masque for a designe more perillous The intemperate and indiscreet Government had alien'd the hearts of this People there was a general face of Discontent over the whole Kingdome the Ulcers fester'd dayly more and more the Scotish disaster is ascribed to the Regal weakness and all things seem'd to tend to quick confusion If this unadvised and ill-grounded disorder had tasted the general inclination in a more innocent and justifiable way it was constantly believed the King had sooner felt the publick Revolt of the whole Kingdom But this work was reserved till a farther time and the operation of those that had the opportunity of effecting it with more power and a fairer pretence of Justice It is a very dangerous thing when the Head is ill and all the Members suffer by his infirmity Kings are but men and Man is prone to Errour yet if they manage their distempers with Wisdome or Discretion so that they lye not open to publick view and censure they may be counted faults but not predictions but when the heart is gangren'd and the world perceives it it is the fatal mark of that infection which doth betoken ruine and destruction The Cardinals are now come back the hopes of Peace are desperate the Scots are on the Sunny-side of the hedge and will have no Conditions but such as may not be with Honour granted Edward inflam'd will have no farther Treaty this makes them take their leave and hasten homeward Their Losses liberally are requited and many goodly Gifts bestow'd at parting Being come to Rome they inform his Holiness of the success of their journey who takes ill the contumacy of the perfidious Scots and excommunicates both that King and Kingdom But this thunderbolt wrought a small effect where Honesty had so little an acquaintance Religion must needs be a great stranger The loss of Barwick and the disgrace of his first Overthrow calls the King to adventure a Revenge which he thinks he had too long adjourned He makes it a disputable question whether he should besiege Barwick or invade Scotland but the consideration thereof is referr'd till the moving of the Army which is advanc'd with all speed possible Men Arms and Money with all such other Provisions as were as well fit to continue the War as begin it are suddenly ready in full proportion The Army attends nothing but the King's Person or some more lucky General to lead it In the knowledg he looseth no time but appears in the Head of his Troops and leads them on making an armed hedge about Barwick before his enemies had full knowledg of his moving The Council of War thought it not expedient to leave such a thorn in the heel of so glorious an Army The Scots thought it too great a hazard to attempt the breach of so strong a body so excellently intrencht and guarded the memory of former
plot a private mischief The King they knew was crafty close and cunning and thought not fit to trust too far to Rumour This makes them stand upon their guard and keep Assemblies pleading for warrant the self-same ground of rising But when their Spies in Court had given them knowledge that all was sure they need not fear their danger and that they dayly heard the Northern clamour that ecchoed loudly with the Scotish motions they draw their Forces to the King 's who thus united in person leads them to this hopeful Conquest But forehand-reckonings ever most miscarry he had those hands but not those hearts which fought his Fathers fortune Scarce had he past and left the English Borders but he beholds an Army ready to affront him not of dejected Souls or Bodies fainting but Men resolv'd to win or dye with Honour Their valiant Leader heartens on their Courage and bids them fight for Life Estate and Freedome all which were here at stake which this day gains or makes hereafter hopeless Edward that expected rather submission or some honest Terms of agreement finding a Check given by a Pawn unlook'd for plays the best of his game and hopes to win it He contemns their condition and number slighting their Power and in the memory of his Father's Conquests thinks his own certain But the success of Battles runs not in a Bloud neither is gained by Confidence but Discretion and Valour No one thing hurts more in a matter of Arms than Presumption a Coward that expects no mercy is desperate by compulsion and the most contemptible Enemy proves most dangerous when he is too much undervalu'd You may see it here instanc'd where a rabble multitude of despised Blue-caps encounter rout and break the Flower of England Eastriveline doth yet witness the fatal memory of this so great Disaster There fell brave Clare the Earl of Gloucester the valiant Clifford and stout Mawle with above Fifty Knights and Barons This bloudy day which had spilt so great a shower of Noble bloud and cropt the bravest Blossoms of the Kingdom sends the King back to Barwick with a few straggling Horse whose well-breath'd speed out-run the pursuing danger So near a Neighbourhood to so victorious an Enemy is deemed indiscretion where the Prize was believ'd so richly worth the Venture This sends away the melancholy King jaded in his hopes and dull with his misfortune If we may judge by the Event the Condition of this man was truely miserable all things at home under his Government were out of rule and order and nothing successful that he undertook by forraign Employment but where the Ground is false the Building cannot stand He planted the foundation of his Monarchy on Sycophants and Favorites whose disorderly Proceedings dryed up all that sap that should have fostered up the springing Goodness of the Kingdome and made him a meer stranger to those Abilities that are proper to Rule and Government Kings ought to be their own Surveyors and not to pass over the whole care of their Affairs by Letter of Atturney to another mans Protection such inconsiderate actions beget a world of mischief when there are more Kings than one in one and the self-same Kingdom it eclipseth his Glory and derogates from his Greatness making the Subject groan under the unjust Tyranny of an insolent oppression No man with such propriety can manage the griefs and differences of the Subject as the King who by the Laws of God Men and Nature hath an interest in their Heart and a share in their Affections When they are guided by a second hand or heard by a Relator Money or Favour corrupts the Integrity and over-rules the course of Justice followed at the heels with Complaint and Murmur the Mother of Discontent and Mischief The unexpected return of the General of this ill-succeeding Enterprize filled the Kingdom with a well-deserved Sorrow and is welcom'd with a News as strange though not so full of danger Poydras a famous Impostor a Tanners Son and born at Exeter pretends himself with a new strain of Lip-cousenage to be the Heir of Edward the First by a false Nurse chang'd in his Cradle for the King now reigning All Novelties take in the itching ears of the Vulgar and win either belief or admiration This Tale as weak in truth as probability was fortunate in neither only it exalts this imaginary King to his Instalment on Northampton-Gallows where he ends the hour of his melancholy Government with as strange a Relation which suggests That for two years space a Spirit in the likeness of a Cat had attended him as the chief Groom of his Chamber from whom in many secret Conferences he had received the truth and information of this Mystery with assurance it would bring him to the Crown of England It was as great a fault in the Master to believe as for the Servant to abuse yet the desire of the one to change his Tanfat for a Kingdom was not much out of square nor the Lying of the other since he continued but his trade which he had practis'd from the beginning It is a foul offence and oversight in them that have not Devils of their own to hunt abroad and seek where they may gain them by purchase If it be a mystery of State to know things by Prediction of such vertuous Ministers methinks they were much better kept as this Tanner kept his rather as an houshold-Servant than a Retainer which may in time bring them to a like Preferment Such Agents may seem Lambs but in the end they will be found as savage as Tygers and as false as the Camelions Till now our wanton King had never felt the true touch of a just grief but mens misfortunes alter their impressions he inwardly and heartily laments his own dishonour yet strives to hide and conceal his Sorrow lest those about him might be quite dejected It was a bitter Corrosive to think how oft his Royal Father had displaid his victorious Colours which knew not how to fight unless to conquer How often had he over-run this Neighbour-Nation and made them take such Laws as he imposed How many times had he overthrown their greatest Armies and made them sue they might become his Subjects The memory of this doth vex his Spirits and makes him vow Revenge and utter Ruine He calls to Council all his Lords and Leaders and lays before them antient Glory of the Kingdom the late Misfortune and his proper Errours and lastly his desire to right his Honour They glad to hear the King in the sense of so general a disgrace touch'd with so noble a strain do spur it on before it cool'd or the Scots should grow too proud of their new Glory The former Loss had toucht so near the quick that there is now a more wary Resolution Dispatches are sent out for a more exact and full provision a mature Consideration is thought necessary before it come to action York
next her person and those that were her own he bribes to back him The Court thus fashion'd he levels at the Country whence he must gain his strength if need enforc'd it Here he must have an estate and some sure refuge this he contrives by begging the Custody of divers of the principal Honours and Strength of the Kingdom But these were no inheritance which might perpetuate his Memory or continue his Succession He makes a Salve for this Sore and to be able to be a fit Purchaser of Lands by the benefit of the Prerogative he falls a selling of Titles in which it was believ'd he thriv'd well though he sold many more Lordships than he bought Mannors by this means yet he got many pretty retiring places for a younger Brother within the most fertil Counties of the Kingdom This for the Private now to the Publick he makes sure the principal Heads of Justice that by them his credit might pleasure an old Friend or make a new at his pleasure If in this number any one held him at too smart a distance prizing his integrity and honour before so base a traffique he was an ill Member of State and either silenc'd or sent to an Irish or Welsh Employment It is enough to be believ'd faulty where a disputation is not admitted The Hare knows her ears be not horns yet dares not venture a Tryal where things must not be sentenc'd as they are but as they are taken The Commanders that sway most in Popular Faction as far as he durst or might without combustion he causeth to be conferr'd oâ— his Friends and Kindred and above all things he settles a sure Correspondence of Intelligence in all the quarters of the Kingdome as a necessary leading president he fills the peoples ears with rumour of forreign danger to busie their brains from discoursing Domestick Errours and sends out a rabble of spying Mercuries who are instructed to talk liberally to taste other mens inclinanations and feel the pulses of those that had most cause to be discontented For the antient Nobility which was a more difficult work to reduce to conformity laying aside the punctilio's of his greatness he strives to gain them as he won his Master but when he found them shy and nice to make his party he slights them more and more to shew his Power and make them seek to entertain his favour And to eclipse their Power by birth and number he findes the means to make a new Creation which gave the Rabble-Gentry upstart Honours as Children do give Nuts away by handfuls yet still he hath some feeling of the business Lastly he wins the King to call his Father to the Court who with the shoal of all his Kin are soon exalted while he makes all things lawful that correspond his Will or Masters Humour He thus assuming the administration of the Royal affairs his Master giving way to all his actions the incensed Lords grown out of patience appoint the rendevouz of a secret Meeting at Sharborough where they might descant their griefs with more freedom yet with such a cautelous Secrecy that this Harpy with his Lyncean eyes could not perceive their anger Assoon as they were met Thomas of Lancaster the most eminent of this Confederacy in a grave discourse lays before them the Iniquity of the time the Insolency of this new Ganymede and the Kings intemperate wretchlesness which made the Kingdom a prey to all manner of Injustice Hereford adviseth that they should all together petition the King that he would be pleased to look into the Disorders and grant a Reformation Mowbray Mortimer and the rest soar a higher pitch which Clifford thus expresseth My Lords It is not now as when brave Lincoln lived whom Edward fear'd and all the Kingdom honoured Nor is this new Lord a Gaveston or naked Stranger that only talkt and durst not act his Passions We now must have to do with one of our own Country which knows our ways and how to intercept them See you not how he weaves his webs in Court and Country leaving no means untryed may fence his greatness And can you think a verbal Blast will shake him or a set Speech will sink his daring Spirit No he is no fantastick Frenchman but knows as well as we where we can hurt him his Pride is such he 'll ne're go less a farding but he must fall a key or we must ruine Women and Children make their tongues their Weapons true Valour needs no words our wrongs no wrangling Say this unconstant King hear our Petition admit he promise to redress our Grievance this sends us home secure and well-contented until the Plot be ripe for our destruction If you will needs discourse your cause of Grievance be yet provided to make good your errour a wise man gets his guard then treats Conditions which works a Peace with ease and more assurance All Treaties vain our Swords must be our warrant which we may draw by such a just compulsion those ready then attempt your pleasure and see if words can work a Reformation I am no tongue-man nor can move with language but if we come to act I 'll not be idle Then let us fall to Arms without disputing We 'll make this Minion stoop or dye with honour This rough Speech uttered with a Souldier-like liberty by one so truly noble and valiant inflam'd the hearts of such as heard them They concur all in a general approbation and thereupon they fall to present Levies Mortimer a brave young active Spirit with his Retinue gains the maiden-head of this great Action He enters furiously upon the possession of the Spencers spoiling and wasting like a profest enemy This outrage flies swiftly to the owners and appears before them like Scoggins crow multipli'd in carriage They assoon make the King the sharer of their intelligence and increase it to their best advantage Edward sensible of so audacious an affront thought it did yet rather proceed from private spleen than publick practice which made him in the tenderness of the one and malice to the other by Proclamation thus make known his pleasure That the Actors of this misdemeanour should immediately appear personally and shew cause whereby they might justifie their Actions or forthwith to depart the Kingdom and not to return without his special License When the tenour of this Sentence was divulged and come to the knowledge of the Confederate Lords they saw their interest was too deeply at stake to be long shadow'd In the obedience of such a doom the primitiae of their Plot must receive a desperate blemish They therefore resolve as they had begun so to make good and maintain the quarrel they reinforce their Forces and draw them into a body strong enough to boulster out their doings and to bid a base to the irresolute wanton King and his inglorious Favourite whose Platforms were not yet so compleat as that they durst adventure the Tryal of
seems was his Crafts-master that this place was to him both fatal and ominous 'T was ill in him to seek by such ill and unlawful means the knowledge of that which being known did but augment his sorrow Whatsoever the cause was his arrival here makes him deeply heavy sad and melancholy his Keepers to repel this humour and to take him off from all fear and suspicion feed him with new hopes and pleasant discourse improving his former entertainment both in his Diet and Attendance while his misgiving spirit suspects the issue Though he would fain have fashion'd his belief to give them credit yet he had such a dull cloud about his heart it could receive no comfort The fatal Night in which he suffer'd shipwrack he eats a hearty Supper but stays not to disgest it immediately he goes to Bed with sorrow heavy assoon he takes his Rest and sleeps securely not dreaming of his end so near approaching Midnight the Patron of this horrid Murder being newly come this Crew of perjur'd Traitors steal softly to his Chamber finding him in a sweet and quiet Sleep taking away his Life in that advantage The Historians of these Times differ both in the time place and manner of his Death yet all agree that he was foully and inhumanly murther'd yet so that there was no visible or apparent signe which way 't was acted A small tract of time discovers the Actors and shews evidently that it was done by an extremity of Violence they long escape not though Mortimer's greatness for the present time keep them both from question and puishment yet by the Divine Justice they all meet with a miserable and unpitied Death and the Master-work-man himself in a few years after suffered an ignominious Execution The Queen who was guilty but in circumstance and but an accessory to the Intention not the Fact tasted with a bitter time of Repentance what it was but to be quoted in the Margent of such a Story the several relations so variously exprest of their Confessions that were the Actors and Consenters to this deed differ so mainly that it may be better past over in silence than so much as touch'd especially since if it were in that cruel manner as is by the major part agreed on it was one of the most inhumane and barbarous acts that ever fell within the expression of all our English Stories fitter rather to be pass'd over in silence than to be discours'd since it both dishonoureth our Nation and is in the Example so dangerous It seems Mortimer was yet a Novice to Spencer's Art of that same Italian trick of Poysoning which questionless had wrought this work as surely with a less noise and fewer agents It had been happy if such a Villany had never gain'd knowledge or imitation in the World since it came to be entertain'd as a necessary servant of State no man that runs in opposition or stands in the way of Greatness is almost secure in his own house or among his Friends or Servants I would to God we had not fresh in our Memory so many bleeding Examples or that this Diabolical Practice might stop his career with the Mischief it hath already done But so long as the close conveyance is deemed a Politick Vertue and the Instruments by Power and Favour are protected what can be expected but that in short time it must fall under the compass of a Trade or Mystery as fit for private Murtherers as Statesmen But leaving the professors of this execrable practice to their deserts and that guilt which still torments them Thus fell that unfortunate King Edward the Second who by the course of Age and Nature might have out-run many years had not his own Disorder the Infidelity of his Subjects and the Treachery of those that had deprived him of his Kingdome sent him to an untimely Death and Ruine Many Reasons are given probable enough to instance the necessity of his Fall which questionless may be the secondary means but his Doom was register'd by the inscrutable Providence of Heaven which with the self-same Sentence punish'd both him and Richard the Second his great Grandchild who was coequally guilty of the same Errours that both betrayed them and the Peace of their Kingdome Henry the Sixth though he tasted of the same Cup of Deposition yet there was more reason to induce it Henry the Fourth his Grandfather was an Usurper and had unjustly got the Crown by pulling down the House of York and exalting that of Lancaster which in Justice brings it back again to the right Inheritour yet were not those times innocent of those enormities which occasion'd their confusion It is most true that Henry himself was a sweet harmless condition'd Man religious and full of Moral Goodness but he was fitter for a Cloister than a Crown being transported with a Divine Rapture of Contemplation that took him off from the care of all Worldly Affairs while Margaret his Wife Daughter of Reynard that stil'd himself King of Naples and Jerusalem acted her part with a like imitation though she had not a Gaveston a Spencer or a Duke of Ireland yet she had a Suffolk and a Somerset that could teach the same way to the Destruction and Deposition of her Husband These three sympathized in their Royal Inheritance in their Depositions Deaths and Fortunes and these alone since the Conquest of the Normans unless we rank into the number Edward the Fifth which must be with an impropriety since he was by Richard his Tyrannical Uncle murdered before he was Crowned If we example him with them we may it is true conclude his case most miserable that lost the Crown before he enjoy'd it or had the perfection of years to make known his Inclination The event that followed the others especially the two precedent may be fitly a Caution and Admonition to Posterity and teach them what it is to hazard a Kingdome and their own Lives by the continuing of a wilful Errour Certainly we have had other Kings fully as vicious that have out-liv'd their Vices not dying by a violent hand but by the ordinary and easie course of Nature they were more cautelous and flexible and were content in the more moderate use of their own Vices The Condition of this our Edward the subject of this Story was not in it self more hurtful than dangerous to the Peace and Tranquillity of the whole Kingdome If by Heat of Youth Height of Fortune or the Corruptions of Nature the Royal Affections flie loosely and at random yet if it extend no farther than the satisfaction of the private Appetite it may obscure the glory but not supplant the strength and safety of a Scepter But when it is not only vicious in it self but doth patronize it in others not blushing or shrinking in the justification it is a fore-running and presaging Evidence that threatens danger if not destruction It is much in a King that hath so great a Charge deliver'd over to his care
Cautions would be useless and to little purpose The pruning of the Branches would improve the Fruit little where the Tree was tainted in the root with so foul a Canker Too well he knew how difficult a thing it was to invert the course of Nature especially being confirm'd by continuance of practice and made habituary by custom yet he leaves no means unattempted being confident that Wedlock or the sad weight of a Crown would in the sense of Honour call him in time off to thoughts more innocent and noble Tenderness of Fatherly affection abus'd somewhat his belief and made him give his disorderly actions the best construction which suggests their progression to flow from heat of Youth want of Experience and the wickedness of those that fed him with so base impressions which with all those sweet and milde intreaties that spring from the heart of an essential love he strives to reclaim intermixing withal as great a paternal severity as might properly sute the condition of a judicious Father and the dignity of the Heir apparent of so great and glorious a Kingdom And to make him more apt and fit to receive and follow his instructions he takes from him those tainted humours of his Leprosie that seduced the easiness of his nature and mis-led his unripe knowledge too green to master such sweet and bewitching temptations Gaveston his Ganymede a man as base in Birth as in Condition he commandeth to perpetual Exile This Syren as some write came out of Gascoign but the Author whom I most credit and follow speaks him an Italian not guilty of any drop of Noble blood neither could he from the height of his Hereditary hope challenge more than a bare ability to live yet his thoughts were above measure ambitious and aspiring and his confidence far greater than became his Birthright Nature in his outward parts had curiously exprest her workmanship giving him in shape and Beauty so perfect an excellence that the most curious eye could not discover any manifest errour unless it were in his Sex alone since he had too much for a man and Perfection enough to have equal'd the fairest Female splendour that breath'd within the Confines of this Kingdom Though in the abilities of the Brain he were short of a deep and solid Knowledge yet he had Understanding enough to manage his ways to their best advantage having a smooth Tongue an humble Look and a winning Behaviour which he could at all times fashion and vary according to the condition of time and circumstance for the most advantage The youthful Prince having fixed his wandring eye upon this pleasing Object and finding his amorous Glances entertained with so gentle and well-becoming a modesty begins dearly to cherish the growing Affections of this new Forraign Acquaintance who applies himself wholly to win him to a deeper Engagement A short passage of time had so cemented their hearts that they seem'd to beat with one and the self-same motion so that the one seem'd without the other like a Body without a Soul or a Shadow without a Substance Gaveston the more to assure so gracious a Master strives to fit his humour leaving his Honour to his own protection seconding his wanton disposition with all those bewitching Vanities of licentious and unbridled Youth which in short time by the frequencie of practice begets such a confidence that they fall from that reserved secrecy which should shadow actions so unworthy professing freely a debaucht and dissolute kind of behaviour to the shame and sorrow of the grieved King and Kingdom This hastened on the Sentence of his Banishment that thought himself then most secure in the assurance of the Princes favour The melancholy apparitions of their parting gave the world a firm belief that this inchanting Mountebank had in the Cabinet of his Masters heart too dear a room and being The King knowing such impressions are easily won but hardly lost strives to take him off by degrees and labours to make him wave the memory of that dotage which with a divining Spirit he foresaw in time would be his ruine But death overtakes him before he could bring this so good a Work to full perfection The time was come that exacts the Tribute of Nature commanding him to resigne both his Estate and Kingdom When he felt those cold fore-running Harbingers of his nearly-approaching End he thus intreats his Son and Lords whose watry eyes ingirt his glorious Death-bed Edward the time draws near that callsâ— me to my Grave you to enjoy this Kingdom If you prove good with happiness 't is yours and you will so preserve it if otherwise my Pains and Glory will be your Dishonour To be a King it is the gift of Nature and Fortune makes him so that is by Conquest but Royal Goodness is the gift of Heaven that blesseth Crowns with an Immortal Glory Believe not vainly that so great a Calling is given to man to warrant his disorder It is a Blessing yet a weighty Burthen which if abused breaks his back that bears it Your former Errours now continued are no more yours they are the Kings which will betray the Kingdom The Soveraigns Vice begets the Subjects Errour who practise good or ill by his Example Can you in Justice punish them for that whereof your self are guilty But you perhaps may think your self exempt that are above the Law Alas mistake not there are Injunctions higher far than are your own will crave a Reckoning To be belov'd secures a sweet Obedience but fear betrays the heart of true Subjection and makes your People yours but by Compulsion Majestick thoughts like Elemental fire should tend still upwards when they sink lower than their Sphere they win Contempt and Hatred Advance and cherish those of ancient Bloud and Greatness Vpstarts are rais'd with Envy kept with Danger You must preserve a well-respected distance as far from Pride as from too loose a Baseness Master your Passions with a noble temper such Triumphs makes the Victor conquer others See here the Ruines of a dying Scepter that once was as you are a youthful Blossom I had not liv'd to see this snowy Winter but that I weau'd my heart from vain Temptations my Judgment not my Eye did steer my Compass which gave my Youth this Age that ends in Glory I will not say you too too long have wander'd though my sad heart hath droopt to see your Errour The time now fitly calls you home embrace it for this advantage lost is after hopeless Your First-fruit must make good your Worth if that miscarry you wound your Subjects Hopes and your own Glory Those wanton Pleasures of wild Youth unmaster'd may no more touch the verge of your affections The Royal Actions must be grave and steady since lesser Lights are fed by their Example so great a Glory must be pure transparent that hand to hand encounters Time and Envy Cast off your former Consorts if they sway you such an unnoble