desired to know by what father hee was begot to which she likewise answered that shee never had the societie of any one mortall or humane only a spirit assuming the shape of a beautifull young man had many times appeared unto her seeming to court her with no common affection but when any of her fellow Virgins came in he would suddenly disappear and vanish by whose many and urgent importunities being at last overcome I yielded saith shee to his pleasure and was comprest by him and when my full time of Teeming came I was delivered of this son now in your presence whom I caused to be called Merlin which words were uttered with such modestie and constancie considering withall the royaltie of her birth and the strictnesse of the order in which she now lived that the King might the more easily be induced to believe that whatsoever she spake was truth When casting his eye upon Merlin hee began to apprenend strange promising things in his aspect as having a quick and piercing eye an ingenious and gracious countenance and in hâ—… youthfull face a kinde of austeritie and supercilious gravity which took in him such a deep impression hat he thought his bloud too noble Cruelty changed into pity to bee mingled with the dust and rubbish of the earth therefore instead of sentencing him to death and commanding him to be slaine hee opened unto him the purpose hee had to build this Castle and the strange and prodigious impediments which hindred the work then his assembly of the Bards and Wisards and what answer they returned him of his demand but bad him withall be of comfort for hee prized his life being a Christian above ten such Citadels though erected and perfected with all the cost and magnificence that humane art or fancie could devise To which words Merlin who had all this Merlins speech to the King while stood silent and spake not a word thus reply'd Royall Sir Blinde were your Bards witlesse your Wisards and silly and simple your Southsayers who shewed themselves averse to Art and altogether unacquainted with the secrets of Nature as altogether ignorant that in the brest of this Hill lyes a vast Moat or deep Poole which hath ingurgitated and swallowed all these materials throwne into the Trenches Therefore command them to be digged deeper and you shall discover the water in which your squared stones have beene washed and in the bottome of the Lake you shall finde two hollow Rocks of stone and in them two horrible Dragons fast sleeping which having uttered hee with a low obeysance made to the King left speaking Who instantly commanded pioners with Merlins words found true pickaxes mattocks and shovels to be sent for who were presently employed to dig the earth deepe where the pond was found and all the water drained so that the bottome thereof was left dry then were discovered the two hollow Rocks which being opened out of them issued two fierce and cruell Dragons the one red the other white and made betwixt them a violent and terrible conflict But in the end the white Dragon prevailed over the red at which sight the King being greatly stupified and amazed demanded of Merlin what this their combat might portend Who fetching a great sigh and teares in abundance issuing from his eyes with a propheticall spirit made him this following Merlins first prophesie answer Woe 's me for the red Dragon for alach The time is come hee hasteth to his mach The bloudy Serpent yet whose souls are white Implys that Nation on which thy delight Was late sole-fixt the Saxons who as friends Came to thee first but ayming at shrewd ends They shall have power over the drooping red In which the British Nation 's figured Drive shall he them into caves holes and dens To barren mountains and to moorish fens Hills shall remove to where the valleyes stood And all the baths and brooks shall flow with blood The worship of the holy God shall cease For in thilk dayes the Kirke shall have no peace The Panims woe the while shall get the day And with their Idols mawmetry beare sway And yet in fine shee that was so opprest Shal mount in the high rocks build her nest For out of Cornwall shall proceed a Bore Who shall the Kerk to pristine state restore Bow shall all Britaine to his kingly beck And tread he shall on the white Dragons neck Then casting a sad looke upon the King as reading his fate in his forehead hee muttered to himselfe and said But well-away for thee to Britaine deere For I fore-see thy sad disaster's neere Which accordingly hapned and that within few yeeres after for Vortiger having builded this Castle and fortified it making it defensible against any forreigne opposition the two sons Ambrose and Vter invade the Land at Totnesse of Constantine whom Vortiger had before caused to be slaine assisted by their neere Kinsman Pudentius King of Armorica or little Britain where they had beene liberally fostered and cherished passed the Sea with a compleat Army and landed at Totnesse whereof when the Britains who were dispersed in many Provinces understood they crept out of their holes and corners and drew unto their Host which was no small incouragement to the two brothers Ambrosius Aurelius and Vter-Pendragon who now finding their forces to bee sufficiently able both in strength and number made their speedy expedition towards Wales with purpose to distresse Vortiger the Usurper Who having notice of their comming and not able in regard of the paucity of his followers to give them battaile he made what provision he could for the strengthening of his Castle to endure a long siege and to oppose the rage of any violent battery till hee might send for supply elsewhere But such was the fury of the assaylants that after many fierce and dangerous attempts finding the Walles and Gates to bee impregnable casting into the Castle balls of wilde fire with other incendiaries they burnt him and his people alive amongst whom not one escaped Of him it is reported that hee should have carnal society with his own daughter The lamentable death of King Vortiger in hope that Kings should issue from them Thus died hee most miserably when hee had reigned since his last Inauguration nine yeeres and some odde moneths The explanation of the rest of his prophesie I will leave to the Chapter following CHAP. 4. Merlins former prophesie explained with sundry prestigious Acts done by him to delight the King his prophesie of the Kings death And bringing Stonehenge from Ireland YOu have heard what the red and white Dragons figured namely the British and Saxon people wee will now punctually examine the truth of his prediction in the rest The caverns corners mountains and moorish places expresse into what sundry distresses the Natives were driven unto by the mercilesse crueltie of the strangers by the Hils and Valleys shifting places that there was no difference amongst
slaine of men of note the Duke of Athenes the Duke of Burbon Sir Iohn Cleremont Marshall of France Sir Henry Camian Banneret who bore that day the Oriflambe a special relick that the French Kings used in all battailes to have borne before them the Bishop of Chabous with divers others to the number of fifty foure Bannerets Knights and others And of prisoners taken in that battaile were Iohn King of France Philip his fourth sonne Iohn King of France tooke prisoner Sir Iaques of Burbon Earle of Poitou and brother to the Duke of Burbon Sir Iohn of Artoys Earle of Ewe Sir Charles his brother Earle of Noble men took prisoners Longevile Sir Giffard Cousin German to the French King Sir Iohn his sonne and heire William Archbishop of Sence Sir Simon Melen brother to the Earle Canlarvive and Earle of Vandature The Earles of Dampmartin of Vendosme of Salisbruch of Moyson the Martiall Denham with others as Bannerets Knights and men of name according to their owne Writers fifteene hundred and above from which battaile escaped Charles eldest son of King Iohn and Duke of Normandy with the Duke of Anjoy and few others of name And King Edward after due thanks given to Almighty God for his Charles Duke of Normandy escapeth from the battaile triumphant victory retyred himselfe to Burdeaux with his Royall prisoners where the King and the rest were kept till Easter following In the one and thirtieth yeere of the King the sixteenth of April Prince Edward being eight and twenty yeeres of age tooke shipping with his prisoners at Burdeaux and the foure and twentieth of May was received with great joy by the Citizens of London and thence conveyed to the Kings palace at Westminster where the King sitting in his estate Royall in Westminster Hall after hee had indulgently entertained the Prince he was conveyed to his lodging and the French King royally conducted to the Savoy where he lay long after and in the Winter following were royall Iusts held in Smithfield at which were present the King of Three Kings present at the Iusts in Smithfield England the French King the Scotch King then prisoners with many noble persons of all the three Kingdoms the most part of the strangers being then prisoners Whilst K. Iohn remayned in England which was for the space of 4 yeers and odde days The king of England and the blacke Prince his son with their Armies over-run the greatest part of France during the time of Charles his Regency over the kingdome who was king Iohns eldest son against whom they had many memorable victories spoyling where they list and sparing what they pleased in so much that king Edward The Father and sonne victorious in â—…rance made his owne conditions ere any peace could be granted at length the king was delivered and royally conveyed into his country who so well approved of and liked his entertainment here that in the thirty seventh yeere of king Edward he returned into England and at Eltham besides Greenwich dined with the king and in the same afternoon was royally received by the Citizens and conveyed through London to the Savoy which was upon the twenty fourth of Ianuary but about the beginning of March following a grievous sicknesse tooke him of which he dyed the eight of Aprill following King Iohn dyeth at the Savoy whose body was after solemnly conveyedto St. Denis in France and there royally interred In the fortieth yeere of the king one Barthran de Cluicon a Norman with an Army of Frenchmen entred the land of Castile and warred upon Peter king of that Country and within foure moneths chaced him out of his kingdome and crowned Henry his bastard brother in his stead wherefore hee was constrained to flie to Burdeaux and to demand aide of Prince Edward who commiserating his case as being lawfull king howsoever of a tyrannous and bloudy disposition he granted his request so that hee assisted Peter with his English Archers against the bastard Henry with his French Spear-men whose two Armies mâ—…t neere unto a town called Doming where betwixt them was a lâ—…ng P. Edwards victoryia Spaine and cruell fight but in the end the victory fell to the Prince and Henry with his whole army were rowted In which battail were taken Barthran de Claicon and Arnold Dodenham Marshall of France with divers others as well French as Britons and Spaniards and slain to the number of five thousand of the enemies and of the princes Army sixteen hundred after which hee enstated Peter in his kingdome who after perfidiously denyed to pay the princes army For which he was after divinely punished as also for killing his owne wife the daughter to the Duke of Burbon for his Bastard brother Henry knowing how hee was justly abandoned by the English having gathered new forces gave him battaile in which being taken his brother commanded his head to be strooke off which was immediately done after which Iohn of The death of Don Peter Gaunt Duke of Lancaster the Kings sonne and Edward his brother Earle of Cambridge married the two daughters of this Peter late King of Castile Iohn espoused Constance the elder and Iohn a Gaunts title to Spain Edward Isabel the younger by which marriages the two brethren claimed to be inheritours to the Kingdome of Castile or Spaine In the one and fiftieth yeare of the King upon the eighth of Iune being Trinity Sonday dyed that renowned souldier Edward the black Prince in the palace of Westminster whose body The death of the blacke Prince was after carried to Canterbury and there solemnly interred who in his life time was much beloved both of the Commons and the whole kingdome especially for removing from the kings person all such as had misled him in his age by which the Common Weale was much oppressed amongst others was the Lord Latimer noted for principall and Alice Pierce the Kings Concubine with Sir Richard Skory Alice Pierce the Kings Conâ—…ine all which were according to the Commons just complaint by the Prince removed but hee was no sooner dead but the king contrary to his promise before made called them again admitting them to their former Offices and Honours and Alice his prostitute to his wonted grace and favour In the two and fiftieth yeer the two and twentieth day of Iune dyed at his Mannor of Sheen The death of K. Edward the third now called Richmond the royall and most victorious Prince king Edward the third of that name of whom it was truly predicted The spirits of many Lions shall conspire To make one by infusion so entire He by his mighty courage shall restore What his sire lost and grandsire wonne before As also that of the unparalleld blacke Prince his sonne who died before his Father A numerous issue shall his Lionesse bring Black shall the first be and though never King Yet shall he Kings captive but ere mature Die shall this brave Whelp of a
is fulsilled the prophesie of Sibylla Cumana so called from Cuma once a famous Citie in Greece where she was borne hee Sibylla Cumana further proceedeth Magnus ab integro seclorum volvitur ordo Iam redit virgo redeunt Saturnia regna Iam nova progenies coelo demittitur alto Intimating in those words that by revolution the great order and course of the World should feele a change which was not from the beginning and that now the Celestiall Maid which figured Iustice or the mother of the most righteous â—…hat Prophet could come neerer to the truthâ—… should returne and that wee should see againe those innocent and blessed dayes which were in the reigne of Saturne which was called the golden World and that a new birth should be sent down to the earth from the highest heaven meaning our blessed Saviour God and man born of the immaculate Virgin Mary nay further in the two subsequent Verses hee implyes that he came to take away the sins of the world which are these Quo duce si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri Irrita perpetua solvent formidine terras So much for Virgil there are divers other prophets of the Gentiles both men and women as Cassandra Chrysis Phiomaene c. and what shall we think of Balaam whose Oracles Moses Other Prophetesses Balaam the sonne of Bosor inserted in the sacred Text and whose prophesies the great Clerkes and Doctours of the Church have expounded in large voluminous Works yet for his person some have held him for no better than a Southsayer or a Wisard and hired for a reward to curse the children of Israel Gods selected people and they by his counsell after inticed to fornication and idolatry of whom the blessed Apostle Saint Peter in the second Chapter of his second Epistle and fourteenth Verse gives him this character speaking of such whose hearts were exercised in covetousnesse and children of the curse who forsaking the right way have gone astray following the way of Balaam the sonne of Bosor who loved the wages of unrighteousnesse but hee was rebuked for his iniquitie for the dumbe beast speaking with mans voice forbade the foolishnesse of the prophet These former examples may beget an hesitation or doubt by which of the two spirits the good or bad our Country-man Merlin uttered his predictions But whosoever shall make question of the true events of his prophesies I shall referre him A just siâ—…tion of the truth of Merlins prophesiâ—…s Dâ—…ctor Alanus de Insulis to the reading of that most excellent Oratour â—…olyhistor and Theologist of his time Alanus de Insulis a German Doctour for his admirable and multifarious Learning sirnamed Vniversalis and Rector of the Parisian Academy in his Explanation or Comment upon Merlins Prophesies the originall being extracted out of Ieffery of Monmouth part of his words are these In all his prophesies I find nothing dissonant incongruous or absurd nor any thing forreigne or averse from truth And those who shall live in ages to come shall finde those his predictions as constantly to happen in their dayes according to the limit of time as wee have hitherto found them certaine and infallible even to the age in which we now live And for these signes and tokens which before the consummation of the World shall appeare he divineth and foretelleth of them in the Sun and Moâ—…ns and the other five Planets Iuno Mars Mercury Venus Satnrne and other stars how they shall confound and alter their courses which they had His predict on from the Planets in the Creation according to that in the holy Evangelist Saint Luke cap. 21. v. 25. Then there shall be signes in the Sun and the Moon and in the stars and upon the earth trouble amongst the Nations with perplexity the Sea and the waters shall roare and mens hearts shall faile them for feare and for looking after those things which shall come in the World for the powers of Heaven shall be shaken c. But of the new heaven and the new earth and the resurrection of the dead to new life how truly he spake according to the Propheticall Evangelicall and Apostolicall Traditions it is manifest that hee no way deviated or erred from the orthodoxall Christian Faith and so much Doctor Alanus concerning the truth of his prophesies with whom I conclude this first Chapter CHAP. 2. In whose Reigne Merlin was borne How the state of Brittaine stood in those days with divers necessary occurrences pertinent to the story THe better to illustrate this our History of Merlin the subject now in agitation it is necessary that I shew you in what Kings Reigne he was borne in what state the Kingdome stood at that time and how our prophet came to bee first knowne in Court He was born in the reigne of King Vortiger who by usurpation aspired to the Crown who being a potent Duke of the Merlin born in the reigne of King Vortiger Brittaine after the death of Constantius took his sonne Constantins out of a Monastery being a simple man and uncapable of so great a charge and made him King so that Duke Vortiger being a popular man had the whole government of the Land and Constantine only the name of King who taking advantage of his Sovereigns easie nature and milde disposition cast in his thoughts how by the death of his Lord and Master to compasse the Crown to himselfe and Vortigers ambition to the Crown to accomplish his ambitious designe he placed as a guard about him an hundred Picts and Scots whom hee so bribed with continuall gifts and rewards that they feared not openly to say that Vortiger better deserved the Imperiall dignity then Constantine in which interim he got into his possession all the treasure howsoever divers thereat grudged and the strangers in hope to purchase his greater favour took their opportunity to lay violent hands upon the King and presented his head to Vortiger being King Constantine slâ—…ine by his guard then at London Who in his Crocodile comming and to blinde the eyes of the Britaines to make them think he had no hand in his death wept exceedingly and made great shew of sorrow and to expresse his great justice caused all those honoured Knights to bee beheaded according to the Treason rewarded Lawes of the Kingdome by which he was held both by the peeres and people innocent of the Treason but those that had the Guardianship of the Kings two younger brothers Aurelius and Vter the one sirnamed Ambrosius the other Ambrosius and Vtâ—…r the Kings younger brothers Pendragon fearing the power and potencie of Vortiger fled with them into little Britaine where they continued yet it pleased God otherwise to dispose of them Then was Vortiger by a generall and unanimous consent crowned King in the yeere of the Vortiger crowned King Incarnation of our blessed Saviour foure hnndred fortie eight but it was not long ere the Picts
and soone after died at Shaftbury and was buried at Winchester when he had reigned nineteen yeeres leaving two sonnes Harold sirnamed for his swiftnesse in running Harefoot and Hardy Canutus whom Harold sonne of Canutus King of England in his life time hee caused to bee crowned King of Denmarke Harold succeeded his Father in the Crowne of England in the beginning of whose Reigne there was great doubt made of the Legitimacie of his birth or whether hee were the Kings sonne or no but more especially by Earle Goodwin who was a man of a turbulent spirit who to the utmost of his power would have disinherited him and conferred the Kingdome to his brother But Leofricus whom the King much loved and trusted by the assistance of the Danes opposed mightily Goodwin and his sonne so that they were utterly disappointed of their purpose Harold was no sooner setled in the Kingdome but hee robbed his stepmother Emma that good and devout Lady of her Iewels and Emma wife to Canutus banished Treasure and then banished her the Land wherefore she sailed to Baldwin Earle of Flanders where she was nobly entertained and continued all the Reigne of this Harold in which hee did nothing worth register or deserving memory who after three yeeres and some few moneths died at London or as some say at Oxford and having no issue left his brother Hardy Canutus heire to the Crowne with the death of whose elder brother I conclude this Chapter CHAP. 10. Merlins Prophesie of Hardy Canutus and Earle Goodwin which accordingly hapned his many Tyrannies amongst other his Tithing of the Norman Gentlemen the death of Prince Alured sonne to Canutus and Emma the strange death of Earle Goodwin After the death of Edward the Confessor Harold Earle Goodwins sonne usurpeth YOu see how hitherto Merlin hath predicted nothing which the successe and event have not made good wee will yet examine him further and prove if hee have beene as faithfull in the future as the former who thus proceedeth And Helluo then with open jaws shall yawne Devouring even till midnight from the dawn And he an Hydra with seven heads shall grace Glad to behold the ruine of his race And then upon the Neustrian bloud shall prey And tithe them by the pole now well away Burst shall he after gordg'd with humane blood And leave his name in part of the salt flood Iron men in woodden Tents shall here arrive And hence the Saxons with her Eglets drive c. It followeth in the History Hardy Canutus the Hardy Canutus the Dane crowned King of England sonne of Canutus and Emma began his Reigne over England in the yeere of Grace one thousand forty one who was oâ—… such cruelty as that he was no sooner setled in the State but he presently sent Alphricus Archbishop of Yorke and Earle Goodwin to Westminster to take up the A barbarous cruelty in a brother body of his deere brother and having parted the head from the shoulders to cast them into the River Thames which was by them accordingly performed the cause thereunto moving was for rifling and after exiling his mother Emma whom hee caused with great honour to be brought againe into the Land Hee revived also the almost forgotten Tribute His riot and eâ—…cesse called Dane gelt which hee spent in drinking Deep and Feeding high for these were his delights For besides his immoderate quaffing he had the Tables through his Court spred four times a day with all the riot and excesse that might be devised who himselfe minding only gormondizing and voracitie committed the whole rule of the Land to Emma and Goodwin who had married the Daughter of Canutus by his first wife Elgina by whom many things were much misordered to the great discontent of the Commons This Earle had many sonnes as witnesseth Polychronicon lib. 6. cap. 15. by his Earle Goodwins sons and daughter first wife who was sister to Canutus hee had but one who by the striking of an Horse was throwne into the Thames and there drowned whose mother after died by Lightning and was of such incontinent life that shee prostituted Virgins and young women to make base and mercenary use of their bodies she dead he married a second of whom hee begot sixe sonnes Swanus Harold Tostius Wilnotus Syrthe or Surthe and Leofricus with a daughter named Goditha who after was married to Edward the Confessor Hardy Canutus wholly devoted to all voluptuousnesse being at a Feast at Lambeth in the midst of his mirth and jollity drinking a carowse out of a bowle elbow-deep fell downe Hardy Canutus dieth drinking suddenly and rested speechlesse for the space of eight dayes at the end whereof he expired in the eight day of Iune when hee had raigned two compleat yeeres leaving no issue lawful of his body and was buried by his Father at Winchester in whom ended the Line and Progeny of Swanus so that after this King the bloud of the Danes was quite extinct and made uncapable of any Regall Dignity within this Land The end of the Danish persecution and how long it continued Their bloudy persecution ceasing which had continued counting from their first landing in the time of Brightricus King of the West Saxons by the space of two hundred fifty five yeeres or thereabout by this Hardy Canutus Merlin intended his Helluo as being a gluttonou Prince whose bibacity and voracity would continue from morning till midnight in the first yeere of whose Reigne The two sonnes of Egelredus and Emma namely Alphred and Edward who before were sent into Normandy came into England to see their Mother and were Princely attended by a great number of brave Norman Knights and Gentlemen of which Earle Goodwin that By the seven heads are meant he and his six sonnes who aâ—…sisted him in all his bloudy projects subtle seven-headed Hydra before spoken of having notice ' hee began to plot and devise how to match his only daughter Goditha to one of the two Princes but finding Alured the eldest to be of an high and haughty spirit and would disdaine so mean a marriage he thought by supplanting him to conferre her upon the younger who was of a more flexible disposition Earle Goodwins pâ—…te to compasse which hee pretended to the King and Councell that it might prove dangerous to the state to suffer so many strangers to enter the Land without license By which he got authority and power to manage that businesse according to his owne discretion as being most potent with the King and a great incourager of his profusenesse and riot therefore being strongly accompanied he met with the two Princes and their traine and set upon them as Enemies killing the greater part of them at the first encounter and having surpris'd the rest upon a place called Guil-downe hee slue nine and saved the tenths and then thinking the number of the survivors too Earle Goodwins great cruelty great he tithed againe
a certain number of Britaines and as many Saxons should meet upon a Mayday weaponlesse upon the Plaine of Salisbury on which prefixed day Hengist bethought him of a strange and persidious Treason charging all his Saxons that every one should put a long Knife in his hose and when hee gave this watch-word Nempnith your Sepis they should suddenly fall upon the A most unkâ—…ngly treason unarmed Britaines and kill them to one man Briefly they met at the time and place appointed where Hengist and his Saxons received him and his power with a countenance of peace and love but they had not long spoken together when Hengist giving the watchword the Britans were basely and barbarously butchered unlesse any by his manhood and strength wrest the Knife from his enemy and defend himselfe amongst the British Lords was one Edolf Earle of Chester who as Gunfride affirmes seeing his friends and fellows thus murdered he found the stake of an hedge by chance their scattered with which he not only saved his owne life but A valiant Britain slue seventeene of the opposite side and got safely into the City of Salisbury after which treason executed the King remained with Hengist as prisoner Hengist by his Treason having thus gotten the upper hand and reteining the King in his Vortiger suppressed by Hengist power and custodie hee compelled him to give him three Provinces in the East part of Britain Kent Suffex Norfolke and Suffolke to which some adde Essex c. of which being safely possessed hee suffered the King to goe at large sending for some other of his Kinsmen to take possession of other Provinces in the Kingdome crowning himselfe King of Kent and from his Britain first called England owne name caused this Realme to bee called Hengists Land or as wee now pronounce it England and the Saxons now spreading and quartering themselves in the best and most fertile soyles of the Land as having the Sovereignty over London Yorke Lincolne Winchester with most of the principall Cities in the Realme The Saxons still increasing in multitude and power and the Britains daily decreasing both in number and strength Vortiger was forced to flie or retire himself into Wales where Vortiger forced to fly into Wales after some writers thinking to fortifie himself he began to lay the foundation of a Castle called Generon or Gwayneren in the West side of the River Grana upon an Hill called Cloaricus But what successe he had in the building thereof and how Merlin came first to be knowne to the King with part of his Prophesies I will referre to the subsequent Chapter giving withall the intelligent peruser of this story to better his knowledge this Item that without the laying open of the true passage ofthose timâ—… which I have as briefly as possibly I could in the premises these our prophets predictions which now seeme plaine and easie would have beene much more intricate and hard to bee understood CHAP. 3. By what miraculous accident young Merlin came to be knowne to King Vortiger of the combat betwixt the red and the white Dragon and his prophesie thereof c. WHen Vortigers Architectors had caused the Hill to be digged and the foundation to bee laid on which to erect this new structure after the weake men had digged the circuit of the place where the great stones were to be set in order they were no sooner laid in the hollow of the earth but they instantly sunke down and were swallowed up and no more seen at which the Workmen wondred and the King himselfe was much astonished and the more proofs they made the greater cause of admiration they had especially the scituation being upon an Hill and no moorish or uncertaine ground therefore the King commanded a cessation from the worke for the present and sent to the Bards and Wisards of which that age afforded plenty Vortiger inquires of the Wizards to know a reason of that prodigie or at least what it might portend who being gathered together and having long consulted amongst themselves and not finding by any naturall or supernaturall reason what the cause thereof might be they concluded in the end to save their credits and to excuse their ignorance to put the King off with an impossiblitie and when hee came to demand of them what they had done in the matter they returned him this answer that those stones could never be laid together or the place built upon till they were cemented with the bloud of a man-childe who was borne of a mother but had no man to A cunning evasion his father With this answere the King satisfied the soothsayers departed from him not meanly glad that they had put him off according to our English word with a flam or delirement without any disparagement to their art and cunning who no sooner left his presence but the King cald his servants about him commanding them to ride and search into and through all Provinces and Countries till they could find such an one as the Wisards had spoken of and by faire or foule meanes to bring the party unto him but not acquainting him with the Cause but that the King seeing such an one would send him back richly and bountifully rewarded having received this commission or rather Imposition from the King their master wee leave them to their severall adventures every of them being sufficiently accommodated for so uncertaine a journey One of them amongst the rest hapned to come to a Towne or Citty called Kaier Merlin Merlins City since from him so called which implyes Merlins Towne or Merlins borrough which is no doubt the same which wee call at this day Marlborrow but my author termes it a City at whose gates the messenger of the king arriving it hapned that a great many young Lads were sporting themselves without the walls and of the company two of them in gaming fall out the one yong Merlin the other called Dinabutius who amongst other breathing words cast into Merlins teeth that hee was but some Moon-calfe as born of a mothsr who knew not his father The servant taking notice of this Language presently demanded what he was and who were his parents who returned him answer that for any father hee Merlin first discovered had they knew none but his mother was daughter to the King Demetius and lived a Votaresse in that Citie in a Nunnery belonging to the Church of Saint Peter which having heard her presently went to the chiefe Magistrates and shewed them his Commission from the King which they obeying sent both the mother and sonne under his conduct to attend the pleasure of his Majesty Of whose comming the King was exceeding joyfull and when they appeared before him Merlin and his mother appeare before the King both ignorant of the occasion why they were sent for the King first asked him if that were his naturall sonne Who reply'd that hee was and borne of her own body hee then