Service In 1596. The Queen rigs out a brave Fleet consisting of 150 Ships Mann'd with 6360 Souldiers 1000 Volunteer Gentlemen 6772 Seamen with which she is resolved to fall upon the Spaniard at home The Earl of Essex and the Lord Howard were Commanders of equal Authority having been both at excessive charge in carrying on the War To these were joyned a Council of War consisting of several eminent Seamen and Souldiers among whom was Sir Walter Rawleigh The Fleet was divided into four Squadrons the first commanded by the Lord Admiral Howard the second by the Earl of Essex the Third by Sir Tho. Howard and the fourth by Sir Walter Rawleigh In the beginning of June they set sail for Cales and soon got to Gades their Design being perfectly unknown as well to their Enemies as their own men The Ebbing waters would not permit the Great Ships to engage the shelves being of greater hazard than the Enemy Therefore Rawleigh is pitcht upon as the most proper Person in the midst of the Channel to provoke them who accordingly in a little Ship called the Warspight directed his Prowe against the Spanish Men of War who thereupon presently fell back Upon this the rest of the Fleet came in and burnt and took several of their Ships After this Victory at Sea the Men were very importunate to go on shore whom Essex landed at Puntal a League from the City At first the Spaniards received them with a great deal of Courage but the English charged them so warmly that they thought it the best way to retire with more speed than they came out The English pursued so close that they had almost recovered the City Gates as soon as they The Earl got upon a Bulwark neer the Gate and from thence he espied an entrance into the Town but very hazardous it being a precipice but this did not affright several of our English who leaped from thence into the Town and engaged the Enemy in the Streets In the mean time Sir W. Rawleigh and others having forced the Gates entred the Town and the Castle was surrendred upon merciful Conditions but Sir Walter was not Idle or eager after the enjoyment of the Conquest For whilst others were reaping the plentiful Harvest of War he with some small Ships who could pass up the Channel fired their Merchant Men who were withdrawn to Port Real altho' they offered two Milions of Ducats for their Redemption Great were the Losses of the Spaniards by this War and if we may beleive our Histories amounted to no less than Twenty Millions of Ducats upon Consultation it was resolved to quit the Town though contrary to the Opinion of Essex who was for keeping it as a future annoyance to the Spaniards At their return the Queen welcomed and incouraged her Souldiers with new Honours Rawleigh continued in her Favour to the last but when King James came to take possession of the Kingdom Sir John Fortescue the Lord Cobham Sir Walter Rawleigh and others would have obliged the King by Articles before his coming to the Crown that his Countreymens numbers should be limited but this was stopt by the Treasurer and the Earl of Northumberland Sir Walter feared that the Scots like Locusts would quickly devour this Kingdom It being probable that like the Goths and Vandals they would settle in any Countrey rather than their own and would make it their business to render our Nation as poor as their own for this he with the rest of them were afterwards frowned on by the King and lost his Command of the Guards However Sir Walter still pursued the good and Glory of his Countrey and as formerly in active times gave his Advice against the Peace with Spain who might now with no great difficulty be brought on his knees At the entrance of the King he presented him with a Manuscript of his own Writing with no weak Arguments against Peace But Sir Walter was mistaken for his Counsel was ill timed and a new Part was now to be acted the Scene being changed Peace was the Kings aim whether out of Fear or Religious Principles is not determined But with Spain a Peace is concluded though an Enemy already humbled who had now time to recover their Losses and were as it were cherished to assault us with the greater Vigor and the success thereof every one knows and as if the King would go quite contrary to Queen Elizabeths Politiques the Hollanders are despised flighted and deserted under pretence that it was of ill Example for a Monarch to protect them And now though somewhat contrary to my method it may not be unuseful to give a breif Account of the fall of this once Great Favorite King James is hardly warm in his Throne but there is a great noise of a Plot generally called Sir Walter Rawleigh's Treason but upon what grounds is uncertain since at his Trial it appeared he had the least hand in it A Plot that is still a Mystery and hath a Vail spread over it A Plot composed of such a hodg-podg of Religion and Interests that the World stands amazed Sir Walter Rawleigh should be drawn into it A Plot so unlikely to hurt others or benefit themselves that as Osborn says If ever Folly was capable of the Title or Pity due to Innocence theirs might claim so large a share as not possibly to be too severely condemned or slightly enough punished Envy and Disdain as Sir Walter has told us in his Remains seek Innovation by Faction Discontent is the great Seducer which at first put him to search into a Plot he afterward was betrayed into The cheif Ingredients of this Medley were two Popish Priests Watson and Clark and Count Aremberg Ambassador Extraordinary from the Arch-duke of Austria who brought in the Lord Cobham and he his brother George Brook both seeming Protestants Brook drew in Sir Edward Parham and others and they the Lord Grey of Wilton a zealous Puritan then came in Sir Walter Rawleigh the wisest of them all says Mr. Sanderson who dallilied says he like a fly in the Flame till it consumed him Willing he was to know the Design and thought by his Wit to over-reach the Confederates whom he knew well enough though he dealt with none but Cobham One Mr. Laurency an Antwerp Merchant was made use of by Count Aremberg and was an intimate of the Lord Cobham's these says Sanderson carried on the contrivance a great while which at last was betrayed by Laurency and the Vigilancy of the Lord Cecil And indeed it was morally impossible that so many disagreeing weak Souls should carry on a Project without taking Air the least glimpse being enough to give Light to the Statesmen of those times The Design they were charged with was 1. To set the Crown on the head of the Lady Arabella Stewart or to seize the King and make him grant their desires or a Pardon and that Lord Cobham should say to Brook It will never be well in England till
the King and his Cubs be taken away 2. To have a Toleration of Religion 3. To procure Aid and Assistance from Forreign Princes 4. To turn out of the Court such as they disliked and place themselves in Offices Watson to be Lord Chancellor George Brook Lord Treasurer Sir Griffin Markham Secretary of State Lord Grey to be Master of the Horse and Earl Marshal of England But it seems they made no Provision for Rawleigh which is no inconsiderable Argument of his Innocency who could have deserved and might have expected as great a reward as any of them had he been engaged in the Plot To oblige to Secrecy Watson draws up an Oath But all is betrayed they are Seized Examined and Tryed at Winchester Nov. 17. 1603. and the Lord Cobham George Brook his Brother Thomas Lord Grey of Wilton Sir Walter Rawleigh Sir Griffith Markham and Sir Edward Parham Knights Bartholomew Brooksby and Anthony Copley Gentlemen W. Watson W. Clark Priests were all found guilty of Treason except Sir Edward Parham who was acquitted and Watson and Clark were executed Nov. 29. George Brook was beheaded Decemb. 5. but here the hand of Justice staid the Lord Cobham Lord Grey and Sir Griffith Markham were pardoned at the place of Execution Sir Walter Rawleigh was left to the Kings Mercy who thought him too great a Male-content to have his Freedom and probably too innocent to lose his Life Therefore he is confined to the Tower where he writ that excellent History of the World wherein the only fault or defect rather is that it wanteth one half thereof which was occasioned as it is commonly related thus Some few days before he suffered he sent for Mr. Walter Burr who formerly printed his first Volume of the History of the World and asking him how it sold Mr. Burr answered It sold so slowly that it had undone him At which words Sir Walter stepping to his Desk reaches his other unprinted part of his History which he had brought down to the times he lived in and clapping his hand upon his breast said with a sigh Ah my friend hath the first part undone thee the second Part shall undo no more this ungrateful World is unworthy of it and immediately going to the Fire-side threw it in and set his Foot upon it till it was consumed As great a loss to Learning as Christendom could have sustained and the greater because it could be repaired by no hand but his While Sir Walter was thus confined Death took away his Mortal Enemy Sir Robert Cecil after Earl of Salisbury who had purchased the Monopoly of Favour and being jealous of Sir Walters Abilities had some fear he might supplant him which was the cause says Osborn that he was brought to the aforementioned Trial However Sir Walter outlived his Designs and Hatred and for all kindnesses bestowed on him the following Epitaph which is certainly affirmed to be his King James was so taken with the smartness of them that he hoped the Author would dye before him The Verses are these Here lies Hobnial our Pastor while er'e That once in a Quarter our Fleeces did share To please us his Cur he kept under Clog And was ever after both Shepherd and Dog For Oblation to Pan his Custom was thus He first gave a Trifle then offered up us And through his false worship such power he did gain As kept him o' th' Mountain and us on the Plain Where many an Hornpipe he tun'd to his Phillis And sweetly sung Walsingham to 's Amaryllis Till Atropos clapt him a P on the Drab For spight of his Tar-box he di'd of the Scab If the Reader desires a key to these Verses he may have it in Osborn's Memoirs Fourteen years Sir Walter had spent in the Tower of whom Prince Henry would say That no King but his Father would keep such a Bird in a Cage and being weary of Confinement his Destiny brought him to his end by Liberty which it could not do by Imprisonment For out of a longing for Liberty he propounded a Project to the King upon which being a well spoken man and of great Capacity he set such colours of Probability especially guilding it over with the Gold he would fetch from a Mine Guiana in the West-Indies without any wrong at all to the King of Spain that the King granted him a limited Commission to undertake it and thereupon with divers Ships accompanied with many Knights and Gentlemen of Quality he set forward on the Voyage but when after long search no such Place nor Treasure could be found he fell upon St. Thome a Town belonging to the King of Spain Sacked Pillaged and Burnt it And here was the first part of his Tragical Voyage Acted in the death of his Eldest Son the last part was acted in his own death at his return For Gundamore the Spanish Embassador did so aggravate this Fact to the King against him that it seemed nothing would give satisfaction but Rawleigh's head without which he seemed to threaten a breach between the two Nations Rawleigh excused his Actions and sent this Defence thereof in a Letter to King James May it please your most Excellent Majesty If in my Journey outward bound I had my men murdered at the Island of St. Thomas and yet spared to take revenge If I did discharge some Spanish Barques taken without Spoil If I did forbear all Parts of the Spanish Indies wherein I might have taken twenty of their Towns on the Sea-coasts and did only Follow the Enterprise I undertook for Guiana where without any directions from me a Spanish Village was burnt which was new set up within three miles of the Mine by your Majesties favour I find no reason why the Spanish Embassador should complain of me If it were lawful for the Spaniards to murder twenty six English-men binding them back to back and then cutting their Throats when they had Traded with them a whole Month and came to them on the Land without so much as one Sword and that it may not be lawful for your Majesties subjects being charged first by them to repel Force by Force we may justly say Oh miserable English If Parker and Metham took Campeach and other Places in the Honduras seated in the Heart of the Spanish Indies burnt Towns killed the Spaniards and had nothing said to them at their return and my self forbore to look into the Indies because I would not offend I may justly say O miserable Sir Walter Rawleigh If I spent my poor Estate lost my Son suffered by sickness and otherwise a World of Miseries If I have resisted with the manifest hazard of my life the Robberies and Spoils which my Company would have made If when I was poor I have made my self Rich If when I had gotten my Liberty which all men and Nature it self do so much prize I voluntarily lost it If when I was sure of my life I rendred it again If I might elsewhere have sold my Ship
and Goods and put five or six Thousand pound in my pocket and yet have brought her into England I beseech your Majesty to believe that all this I have done because it should not be said to your Majesty That your Majesty had given Liberty and Trust to a Man whose end was only the Recovery of his Liberty and who had betrayed your Majesties Trust My Mutineers told me ' That if I returned for England I should be undone But I believed in your Majesties Goodness more than in all their Arguments Sure I am that I am the first that being free and able to enrich my self have imbraced Poverty and Peril and as sure I am that my Example shall make me the last But your Majesties Wisdom and Goodness I have made my Judges who have ever been and shall ever be Your Majesties most humble Vassal Walter Rawleigh Before Sir Walter made this Voyage the King commanded him upon pain of his Allegiance to give him under his hand promising on the word of a King to keep it secret the number of his Men the Burthen and Strength of his Ships together with the Countrey and River he was to enter which being done accordingly by Sir Walter That very Original Paper was found in the Spanish Governours Closet at St. Thoma so active were the Spanish Ministers that Advertisement was sent to Spain and thence to the Indies before the English Fleet got out of the Thames But now no Apology though never so perswasive could satisfie Gâ—ndamores Rage who as soon as news came of the firing St Thoma desired Audience of the King and 〈◊〉 he had but one word to say His Majesty wondering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be delivered in one word when he came before him he only bawl'd out Pyrates Pyrates Pyrates And was therefore now resolved to sacrifice the only Favourite left of Queen Elizabeth to the Spanish Interest and who was the only Person of the Earl Essex's Enemies that died lamented and the only Man of Note left alive that had helped to beat the Spaniard in 1588. When Sir Walter was arrived at Plymouth Sir Lewes Steukly seized him and was ordered by the King to bring him to London which could add no Terror to a Person who could expect nothing less and was now forced to use all the Arts imaginable to appease Hls Majesty and defer his Anger To which intent Manowry a French Quack at Salisbury gave him several Vomits and an Artificial Composition which made him look Gastly and Dreadful full of Pimples and Blisters and deceiv'd even the Physitians themselves who could not tell what to make of his Urine though often inspected it being adulterated with a Drug in the Glass that turned it even in their hands into an earthy humor of a blackish colour and of a very Offensive Savour while he lay under this Politick disguize he penned his Dedication and Apology aforementioned when he was brought to London he was confined only to his own house but finding the Court wholly guided by Gundamore he could hope for little Mercy therefore he designed to escape into France which Sir Lewes Steukly betrayed but the Fate of Traytors pursued him and brought him to a Contemptible end to dye a poor distracted Beggar in the Isle of Lindey having for a Bag of Money falsified his Faith confirmed by the tye of the Holy Sacrament as Mr. Howel relates and also before the year came about was found clipping the same very Coin in the Kings own Palace at Whitehal which he had received for a reward of his Perfidiousness for which being condemned to be hang'd he was forced to sell himself to his Shirt to purchase his Pardon of two Knights The King being willing to Sacrifice the life of Sir Walter Rawleigh to the advancement of the peace with Spain Upon St. Simon and Judes day the Lieutenant of the Tower had a Warrant to bring his Prisoner to the King's Bench Bar in Westminster-Hall where the Attorney General demanded Execution according to the Judgment pronounced against him at Winchester The Lord Chief Justice caused the Indictment Verdict and Judgment to be read and after asked him What he could say why he should not dye according to Law His answer was That this 15 Years he had lived upon the meer mercy of the King and did now wonder h w his mercy should be now turned into Judgment he not knowing any thing wherein he had provoked His Majesties displeasure and did hope that he was clear from that Judgment by the Kings Commission in making him General of the Voyage to Guiana For as he conceived the words to his trusty and well beloved Subject c. did in themselves imply a pardon But the Attorney General told him these words were not sufficient for that purpose whereupon he desired the opinion of the Court To which the Lord Chief Justice replyed That it was no pardon in Law Then began Sir Walter to give an account of his Voyage but was interrupted by the Lord Chief Justice who told him That it was not for any offence committed there but for his first Fact that he was now called in question and thereupon told him That seeing he must prepare to dye he would not add to his affliction nor aggravate his crime knowing him to be a man full of misery but with the good Samaritane would administer Wine and Oyl for the comfort of his distressed Soul You have been said he a General and a great Commander imitate therefore that Noble Captain who thrusting himself into the midst of a battle cryed out aloud Mors me expectat ego Mortem expectabo Death expects me and I will expect Death As you should not contemn so neither should you fear death the one shews too much boldness the other no less cowardice So with some few other Instructions the Court arose and Sir Walter was committed into the hands of the Sheriff of Middlesex who presently conveyed him to the Gate-House in Westminster Yet it has been much wondred at how that old sentence which had lain dormant 16 years and upward against Sir Walter could be now made use of to take off his head afterward Considering that the then Lord Chancellor Bacon told him positively as Sir Walter was acquainting him that he could procure his pardon for a less sum of money then his Guiana preparations amounted to Sir said he the Knee-timber of your Voyage is money spare your Purse in this particular for upon my life you have a sufficient pardon for all that is passed already the King having under his Broad-Seal made you Admiral of your Fleet and given you power of Martial Law over the Officers and Souldiers It was then likewise the opinion of many Lawyers that he who by His Majesties Patent had power of Life and Death over the Kings Leige People should be esteemed or Judged Rectus in curia and free from all Old Convictions Upon Thursday October 29. 1618. This couragious Knight was brought before the
Doublet he called to the Headsman to shew him the Axe which being not presently done he said Prithee let me see it dost thou think that I am afraid of it and having it in his hands he felt along upon the edg of it and smiling spake to the Sheriff saying This is a sharp Medicine but it is a Physician for all diseases Then going to and fro upon the Scaffold on every side he prayed the company to pray to God to assist and strengthen him Being asked on which side of the block he would lay himself he replyed So the heart be right it is no matter which way the head lyeth and then praying after he had forgiven the Executioner having given him a sign when he should do his Office at two blows he lost both head and life his body never shrinking nor moving His Head was shewn on each side the Scaffold and then put into a Red Leather Bag and his wrought Velvet Gown thrown over it which was afterward conveyed away in a mourning Coach of his Ladies The large effusion of blood which proceeded from his Loins amazed the Spectators who judged that he had a stock of nature sufficient to have lived much longer though now near 80 years old He behaved himself at his death with so high and so Religious a resolution as if a Christian had acted a Roman or rather a Roman a Christian and by the Magnanimity which was then conspicuous in him he abundantly bafled their Calumnies who had accused him of Atheism Various were the resentments of his death and several Pasquils as it always happens on such occasions were scattered abroad of the gallantry of his behaviour on the Scaffold these following Verses may give a confirmation and a tast of the Poetry of those times Great heart who taught thee so to dye Death yielding thee the Victory Where took'st thou leave of Life If here How couldst thou be so far from fear But sure thou dyed'st and left'st the State Of Flesh and Blood before that fate Else what a miracle were wrought To triumph both in Flesh and Thought I saw in every stander by Pale Death Life only in thine eye Farewell Truth shall this story say We dy'd thou only liv'dst that day These Verses were found in his Bible in the Gate-house at Westminster Even such is time which takes in trust Our Youth our Joys and all we have And pays us nought but Age and dust Within the dark and silent grave When we have wandred all our wayes Shuts up the story of our dayes Yet from this grave this earth this dust The Lord shall raise me up I trust These two lines Sir Walter writ on the Snuff of a Candle the night before he suffered Cowards do fear to dye but courage stout Rather than live in snuff will be put out Thus dyed the great Sir Walter Rawleigh great sometimes in favour with Queen Elizabeth and next to Drake the great scourge and hate of the Spaniards and Gundamors Triumph who had many things to be commended in his life but none more than constancy in his death A Person of so much worth and great Interest that King James would not execute him without an Apology Authors are perplext under what Topick to place him whether of Statesman Seaman Souldier Chymist or Chronologer for in all these he did excel He could make every thing he read or heard his own and his own he could easily improve to the greatest Advantage He seemed to be born to that only which he went about so Dextrous was he in all his undertakings in Court Camp by Land and Sea with Sword and Pen. Rawleighs Life and Remains XLIV Mr. Howel in his Epistles relates the following pleasant Accident which may be not ungrateful after the former Tragical Account When the Duke of Alva was in Brussels about the beginning of the Tumults in the Netherlands he sate down before Hulst in Flanders there was a Provost Marshal in his Army who was a Favorite of his this Provost had put some to death by secret Commission from the Duke There was one Captain Bolea who was an intimate Freind of the Provosts one Evening late the Provost went to the Captains Tent accompanied with a Confessor and an Executioner as his Custom was and coming into his Presence told the Captain That he was come to execute the Dukes Commission and Martial Law upon him The Captain suddenly started up so struck with amazement that his hair seemed to stand an end asking him wherein have I offended the Duke The Provost replyed Sir I am not to expostulate the business with you but to execute my Commission therefore pray prepare your self for here 's your Ghostly Father and your Executioner The Captain hereupon fell on his knees before the Preist and having finished his Confession the Hangman was going to put the Halter about his Neck but the Provost threw it away and breaking out into a Laughter told him There was no such thing that he had done this only to try his Courage how he could bear the Terror of Death The Captain looked ghastly upon him and said Then Sir get you out of my Tent for you have done me a very ill Office The next morning Captain Bolea though a young Man about thirty had his hair all turned Gray to the admiration of all the World the Duke of Alva questioned him about it but he would confess nothing The next year the Duke was recalled and in his Journey to the Court of Spain he was to pass by Saragossa and this Captain Bolea and the Provost went along with him as his Domestick Attendants The Duke being to repose some days in Saragossa the young old Captain Bolea told him That there was a thing in that Town worthy to seen of his Excellency which was a Casa de Loco a Bedlam-House for there was not the like in Christendom Well said the Duke Go and tell the Warden I will be there to morrow in the afternoon The Captain having obtained this went to the Warden and told him the Dukes Intention and that the cheif occasion which moved him to it was because he had an unruly Provost about him who was oft-times subject to Fits of Frenzy and because he wished him well he had tried divers means to cure him but all would not do therefore he was resolved to try whether keeping him close in Bedlam for some days would do him any good The next day the Duke came with a ruffling Train of Captains after him amongst whom was the Provost very shining brave Captain Bolea told the Warden pointing to the Provost That 's the man whereupon he took him aside into a Dark Lobby where he had plac'd some of his men who muffled him in his Cloke seized upon his Sword and so hurried him down into a Dungeon The Provost lay there two nights and a day after which it happened that a Gentleman coming out of Curiosity to see the House peeped into
was he who could first cry a Miracle and every one said That God shewed the Testimony of his presence A Jew who was but lately become a Christian there denied that it was any Miracle saying It was not likely that out of a dry piece of wood there should come such a Light Now though many of the Spectators doubted of the Miracle yet hearing a Jew deny it they began to murmur calling him wicked Apostate and a detestable Enemy to Jesus Christ After they had sufficiently reviled him in words all the Multitude foaming with rage fall upon him pluck off the hair of his head and Beard tread upon him and drawing him into the Church-yard beat him to death and kindling a great Fire they cast the dead body into it and burnt it to Ashes All the residue of the People in the City ran to this mutinous Company and among them a certain Friar made a Sermon wherein he vehemently stirred up his Auditors to revenge the injury which he said our Lord had received The People furious of themselves grew even stark mad with this Exhortation and besides this two other Friars took and held up a Cross as high as they could crying out Revenge Revenge Heresie Heresie down with wicked Heresie and destroy the wicked Nation Hereupon the Rabble like hungry Dogs fall upon the miserable Jews cut the throats of a great number and drag them to the Fires half dead many being kindled for that purpose They regarded neither Age nor Sex but murdered Men Women and Children they broke open doors rush into Rooms dash out Childrens Brains against the Walls They went insolently into Churches to pluck out thence the little Children Old Men and young Maids who had taken hold of the Altars Crosses and Images of the Saints who pitifully cryed out Mercy Mercy yet they either murdered them there presently or drew them out and threw them alive into the Fire Many that appeared or looked like Jews found themselves in great danger some being killed and others wounded before they could make proof they had no Relation to them Some who had a grudge against others did but cry A Jew a Jew as they met them and they were presently beaten down without having any Liberty or Leasure to answer for themselves The Magistrates durst not oppose themselves against the Rage and Fury of the People so that in three days time the Cut-throats murdered above a Thousand Jewish Persons The King of Spain having notice of this horrible disturbance was extreamly angry and immediately dispatcht away Jaquez Almeida and Jaquez Lopez with full power to punish so great Offences who caused a great number of the Seditious to be executed The Friars who had lifted up the Cross and animated the People to Murder were degraded and afterward hanged and burnt The Magistrates who had not been diligent to repress this Mutiny were some put out of Office and others fined The City also was deprived of many Priviledges and Honours Camerarius his Spare Hours Cent 1. XVIII Such another bloudy Event happened in Sicily in 1281. For Charles of Anjou Reigning in that Kingdom and his Souldiers being all Frenchmen lying in Garrisons in the Cities grew so odious to the Sicilians that they studied nothing so much as how to be revenged on them and to free themselves from the slavish Yoak of the French The Cheif and most Resolute in this business was called John Prochyto who being justly incensed against the French who had ravished his Wife and likewise dispossessed him of an Island whereof he was Lord Provoked with these two Abuses the injured Gentleman plots with King Peter of Aragon to make him Master of the Isle of Sicily and finding himself to be much favoured by the Sicilian Lords and Gentry and the French by reason of their Lusts and Insolencies having made the Natives ready for mischief He by their Council and support begins to build a strange design for the entrapping all the French at once and abolishing their Memory out of Sicily for ever All which was so secretly carried for eighteen Months that it hath ever since been accounted a prodigious thing that a design of this Nature could possibly be so long and safely concealed by so many People and so different in Humour The Watchword or signal was That upon Easter day when the Bell should begin to toll to Evening prayers all the Sicilians should presently run to Arms and joyning together with one accord should fall upon all the French throughout Sicily Accordingly all the Inhabitants of the Isle were joined together at the appointed hour and armed ran upon the French cut all their throats without taking so much as one Prisoner or sparing the Children or Women who were got with Child by the French that they might utterly extinguish the whole race of them There were slain eight Thousand at that time and there escaped but a very small number who fled into a Fort called Sperling where for want of Victuals they were all starved to death And Don Pedro having according to Agreement rigged out his Navy under pretence of some exploit against the Moors came to an Anchor in the Port of Sardinia there to expect how the Tragedy would be Acted which falling out agreeably to his expectation and coming in with his Navy just as the deed was done he was by the General Consent of all sorts of People Crowned King of Sicily and the Government thereof remains under the King of Spain to this day This bloudy Massacre is called The Sicilian Vespers or Even Song to this day Heylin's Cosmog Lib. 1. XIX The following Accident related by Vincent le Blanc may discover the danger of too much Curiosity In the Land of Transiane in the East-Indies there was a Prince Tributary to the King of Pegu and his near Kinsman named Alfonge who married a Sister of the Prince of Tazatai called Abelara who was one of the greatest Beauties in all those Countreys They lived a sweet and happy life with intire Affection and for their greater Felicity they had two Twin Sons who in their young Age discovered something of great and lofty Minds and appeared singularly hopeful for the future These Infants being now Ten years old loved so cordially that they could not live asunder and the desires of the one still met with the consent of the other in all things But the Devil the Enemy of Concord inspires a Curiosity into the minds of the Father and Mother to know their Fates or Fortunes and to their greif they were told The time should come when these two Brothers that now loved so fondly should cut one anothers Throats Which much astonished the poor Princes and filled them with fearful Apprehensions The two Princes being come to their 15 years one said to the other Brother it must needs be that you must murther me for I will sooner dye an hundred deaths than do you the least hurt imaginable The other replied Believe it not good