to persuade the king, that if this young man had as much virtue as he had sense and genius for letters, he would deserve to be preceptor to the royal family. The king, who had great confidence in his minister, enquired Amiot's character of the master of the house: and as his conduct was irreproachable, the road which led to glory now lay open before him, the king lived to acknowledge the sagacity of his minister, and the wisdom of Amiot. One day, among the variety of conversation which passed at the king's table, where Amiot was always obliged to attend, they entered on the character of Charles the Vth. They praised this emperor for many things, but above all for having made his preceptor a pope, who was Adrian IV. He extolled the merit of this action so much, that it made a strong impression on the mind of Charles IX. and induced him to declare, that if an opportunity should offer, he would do as much for his. In fact, a little time after the grand almonry of France being vacant, the king gave it to Amiot, who whether he foresaw what would follow it, or whether through pure humility, he excused himself as much as possible from accepting it, saying, that it was too much above him; but it was in vain, for the king would not admit his refusal. This news however being told to the queen mother, who had designed this high employment for another, she immediately sent for Amiot to her chamber, where she received him in language illbecoming a woman of her dignity. In vain were all Amiot's protestations that he wished to decline the office: the conclusion made by this arbitrary woman was, that if he did accept it, he should not live twenty-four hours; such was the language of the times. On the one hand the words of this woman were as fatal as the sentence of a court of justice; and on the other, the king was extremely obstinate. Between these two extremes, Amiot took the resolution of concealing himself, as the only means of avoiding the rage of the mother, and the liberality of the son. Theking however, when he missed Amiot, fell into such a violent rage, that the queen, who feared as much as she loved him, had no other means left of pacify ing him, than by finding out Amiot, and giving him any security he should require for the safety of his person. This action of Charles IX. was undoubtedly very laudable; but if we should judge of it by the severity of philosophy, it would be rather Charles V. than him to whom the praise was due, since it was the generosity of Charles V. which was the cause of that of Charles IX. And from this relation of the matter we may venture to presume, that if Adrian had not been a pope, Amiot would never have been grand almoner. CHAP. XV. of wonderful and sudden Changes in the Fortunes of many illustrious Persons. THE emperors of Constantinople had in their palace a secret chamber, which they called The purple, in which the empresses, for a ceremonious formality, were brought to bed and delivered: thinking by this means to abolish the acerbities which are, as it were, affixed to our condition. But these pretty Porphyrogenita (so these children of the emperors were called) were notwithstanding born with a cross; saluted life with tears and groans, as well as others; and many of them were so overwhelmed with disasters bo in their own persons and families, that he who was of the meanest birth in all their empire, would have been very loth to have exchanged conditions with them. Upon the top of the mountain Potosi in India there always hangs a cloud (it rises in form of a pyramid, and is three leagues high: there is a cloud over pyramidical fortunes too, with which they are oftentimes fatally overcast. When Constantine had showed (19.) Universal Magazine, vol. lii. p. 33. all all the glory and splendour of Rome to are brave things, but yet I see men die Omnia sunt hominum tenui pendentia filo, "All human things on slender threads depend, "And sudden chance brings greatness toits end." 1. A favourite of Ptolemy king of Egypt was mounted to so high a degree of honour, that he had but two discontentments in this life; the one, that he could grow no more, so great was he al. ready become; the other, that the king, with all his revenues, seemed to him too poor to add any increase of riches. A few days after this, this miserable creature was surprised by king Ptolemy courting a mistress of his; for which contempt, in that instant, the lady was forced to drink poison, and the unfortunate courtier was hanged before his own lodging, 2. Henry the Fourth, emperor of Germany, having been often worsted in battle, was at last reduced to such exigencies, that he had not wherewith to buy him bread, but was forced to come to the great church at Spires, which he himself had built, and there beg to be a chorister, that so he might geta s mall stipend to keep him from starving, but could not obtain it; which repulse caused him to speak to the standers-by in the words of lamenting Job, chap. xix, 21. "Have pity upon me, O my friends, for the hand of God hath touched me." The weight of these miseries brought him shortly after to the grave, but he found none so humane as to put him in; for he lay five years unburied, no man daring to do it, because the pope had forbidden it to be done. This wonderful change in the state of so great a person fell out about the year 1105. 3. The great king Henry the Fourth of France was as remarkable an example of the unstableness of mundane affairs, and of the sandy foundation whereon the highest pomp and purposes of men are grounded, as almost any age can parallel. For this illustrious prince having a most potent and irresistible army, composed of forty thousand combatants, all choice men, led by veteran commanders, and the most expert Europe could afford, in a perfect equipage; having also a mount of gold as high as a lance, estimated at sixteen millions, to maintain this army; having assured his confederates abroad, setted all things at home, caused his queen to crowned in the highest magnificence that could be, and appointed her regent in his absence; behold, this mighty king, amongst these triumphs, being to go next day to his army, when his spirits were at the highest elevation, and his heart swelling with assurances, rather than hopes of success and glory; go. ing one afternoon to his arsenal, he was stopped in a small street by so contemp. tible a thing as a collier's cart; and there, fromamidst the arms of his own nobles, he was thrust out of the world by the meanest of his own subjects, Ravilliac, who, with a prodigious hardiness, putting his foot upon the coach-wheel, reached him over the shoulders of one of his greatest lords, and stabbed him to the very heart, and, with a monstrous undauntedness of reso lution, making good his first stab with a second, instantly deprived him of life. Sic parvis pereunt ingentia rebus. 4. While the emperor Charles the Fifth, after the resignation of his estate, staid at Flushing, for wind to carry him to his last journey into Spain, he conferred on a time with Seldius, his brother Ferdinand's ambassador, till the dead of the night; and when Seldius should de part, the emperor calling for some of his servants, and nobody answering him, - * Caus. Holy Court, tom. 1. 1. 2. p. 52.- (1.) Ibid. p. 58. -(2.) Caryl. Exposit. on Job, xii. 28. p. 282. Joh. Lati. Hist. Univ. Period. Ger, c. 9. § 1. p. 252. — (S.) Howell's Hist. of Louis XIII. p. 3, 4. (for (for those that attended upon him were some gone to their lodgings, and all the rest to sleep), the emperor took up the candle himself, and went before Seldius, to light him down stairs, notwithstanding all the resistance he could make; and when he was come to the stairs foot, he said thus unto him: "Seldius, remember this of Charles the emperor, when he shall be dead and gone; that him, whom thou hast known in thy time environed with so many mighty armies and guards of soldiers, thou hast also seen alone, abandoned and forsaken, yea, even of his own domestic servants, &c. I acknowledge this change of fortune to próceed from the mighty hand of God, which I will by no means go about to withstand." 5. Darius entituled himself king of kings, and kinsman to the gods. Having knowledge of Alexander's landing in Asia, he so much scorned him and his Macedonians, that he gave order to his lieutenants of the Lesser Asia, "that they should take Alexander alive, whip him with rods, and then convey him to his presence that they should sink his ships, and send the Macedonians (taken prisoners), beyond the Red Sea." In this sort spake the glorious king, in a a vain confidence of the multitudes over whom he commanded. But observe here a wonderful revolution: his vast armies were successively routed by the Macedopians; his riches (that were even beyond imagination) seized; his mother, wife and daughters, made prisoners and himself, by the treachery of Bessus, his vassal, taken from the ground, where he lay, bewailing his misfortune, and bound in a cart covered with hides of beasts; and to add derision to his adversity, he was thereunto fastened with a chain of gold, and thus drawn on amongst the most ordinary carriages. The traitor Bessus being hastily pursued by Alexander, he brought a horse to the cart where Darius lay bound, persuading him to mount thercon; but the unfortunate king refusing to follow those that had betrayed him, they cast darts at him, wounded (4.) Raleigh's Pref. to Hist. of the World. p. 162. Pozel. Mellif. tom 1. p. 343, 344. him to death, wounded the beasts that drew him, and slew his two servants that attended him: which done, they all fled. Polystratus, a Macedonian, being by pursuit pressed with thirst, while he was refreshing himself with water, espied a cart with wounded beasts breathing for life, and not able to move: he searched the same, and there found the miserable Darius bathed in his own blood: impatient death pressing out his few remaining spirits, he desired water, with which Polystratus presented him: after which he lived but to tell him, "That of all the best things which the world had, which he had lately in his power, he had nothing remaining but his last breath, wherewith to desire the gods to reward his compassion." 6. Charles the Eighth, king of France, had conquered Naples, and caused himself to be crowned king thereof: but the eighth of April, 1498, upon Palm Sunday, the king being in the height of his glory as touching this world, departed out of the chamber of queen Anne, duchess of Britain, his wife, leading her with him to see the tennis-players in the trenches of the castle, whither he had never led her before, and they two entered into a gallery called Haquelaback's gallery. It was the filthiest, uncleanest place in or about the castle; for every man made water there, and the entry into it was broken down. Moreover the king, as he entered, knocked his brow against the door, though he was of very small stature. Afterwards he beheld the tennis-playing a great while, talking very familiarly with all men. The last words that he spake, being in health, were, "That he hoped never after to commit deadly sin, nor venial. if he could:" in the uttering of which words he fell backwards, and lost his speech about two of th eclock in the afternoon, and abode in this gallery till eleven at night. Every man that chose entered into the gallery, where he lay upon an old mattrass of straw, from whence he never arose till he gave up the ghost, which was nine hours from his first lying upon it. Thus (5.)Raleigh's Hist. of the World, 1. 4. c. 2. § 13. departed departed out of the world this mighty prince, in this miserable place, not being able to recover one poor chamber to die in, notwithstanding he had so many goodly houses of his own, and had built one so very sumptuous immediately before. 7. In a bloody fight betwixt Amurath, third king of the Turks, and Lazarus, despot of Servia, many thousands fell on both sides; but in the conclusion the Turks had the honour of the day, and the despot was slain. Amurath, after that great victory, with some few others of his chief captains, went to take a view of the dead bodies, which, without number, lay on heaps in the field, piled one upon another, as little mountains. While this happy victor was beholding with delight this bloody trophy of his soldiers valour, a chirstian soldier, sore wounded. and weltering in blood, seeing Amurath, in a staggering manner arose as if it had been from death, out of an heap of the slain, and making towards him (for want of strength) fell down many times by the way as he came. At length drawing near to him (when they that guarded the king's person wonld have staid him), he was by Amurath himself commanded to come nearer, supposing that he would have craved his life of him; but this resolute half-dead Christian pressing nearer to him, as he would for honour's sake have kissed his feet, suddenly stabbed him in the bottom of his belly, with a short dagger which he had under his coat; of which wound that great king and conqueror suddenly died, when the victory was his, in the place where he had newly gained it: while his heart swelled with glory, when a thousand swords, lances, and darts had missed him; when he might now seem secure as to death, then fell he as a great sacrifice to the ghosts of those thousands he had in that battle sent to their graves. The soldier by whose hand this glorious action was performed, was called Miles Cobelitz. S. Alexander, the son of Perseus king of Macedon, being carried away captive, together with his father, to the city of Rome, was reduced to that poverty and miserable want, that, prince as he was, he was forced to learn the art of a turnor and joiner, whereby he got his living. 9. My father hath told me, from the mouth of sir Robert Cotton, how that worthy knight met in a morning a trueand undoubted Plantagenet holding the plough in the country. Thus gentle blood fetcheth a circuit in the body of a nation, running from yeomanry through gentry to nobility, and so retrograde, returning through gentry to yeomanry again. 10. Philip king of Macedon, after many famous exploits by him performed, and being chosen by all Greece as their general in the Asia'ic expedition (an honour he had long thirsted after), consuited the oracle of Apollo; and from thence received, as he did interpret it, a very favourable answer touching his success against the Persians. He therefore ordains great and solemn sacrifices to the gods, marries his daughter Cleopatra to Alexander king of Epirus; and, that he might appear amongst the Greeks in his greatest glory and inagnificence, he invites throughout all Greece divers great persons to his nuptial feast, and desires them to bring with them as many as they pleased, whomhe would also entertain as his guests. There was therefore a marvellous confluence of people from all parts to these royal nuptials, and the musical contests which he had also ordained. At Ægis, a city in Macedonia, was this great solemnity, where he then received crowns of gold from several illustrious persons, as also others who were sent to him from the most famous cities in Greece, even from Athens itself. Now was the feast over; and the musical concertation being deferred to the next day, a multitude of people were assembled in the theatre while it was yet night; and at the first appearance of day then began the pomp to set forth; in which, besides other glorious preparations, there were twelve statues of the gods carried upon triumphant arches, and, together with these, a thirteenth, which was the statue of Philip himself, adorned with divine habi (6) Philip de Comin. 1. 8 c. 18. p. 345.-7.) Knowles's Turk. Hist. p. 200.-(8.) Lips. Monit. 1. 2. c. 14. p. 345. Plut in Vit. Emil.-(9.) Full. Ch. Hist. p. 170, in the Roil of Battel Abbey. VOL. IL 2 x liments, liments, by which he would it should be understood, that he was in dignity equal with the gods themselves. The theatre being now crowded, Philip himself appears all clothed in white, having ordered his guards to keep at a distance from him, that the Greeks might know he thought himself sufficiently guarded with their love. At this his glorious appearance he was openly extolled, and looked upon as the happiest person amongst all other mortals. But this his dazzling brightness was soon overcast with a black cloud, and all this pageant of his glory wrapped up in the sables of death. For, while his guards kept at their commanded distance, there ran up to him one Pausanias, one of those who had the nearest charge of his body, and with a short Gallic sword he had hid about him for that purpose, smote him into the side, and laid him dead at his feet in the sight of thousands of his soldiers and friends. 11. Polycrates, the tyrant of samos, was so fortunate, that not so much as a light touch of adversity had for a long time befallen him: he was allied with Amasis king of Egypt, who, hearing of the great prosperity of his friend, feared (like a wise prince) that it would not continue long; wherefore he wrote unto him to this effect: "I am glad to understand that my friend fareth so well; nevertheless, I hold this great felicity in suspicion, knowing how envious fortune is. For my part, I had rather that my affairs, and the affairs of my friends, went in such sort, as that some adversity might cross them in this life, than that they should go always to our liking, If herein thou wilt believe me, cany thyself in thy prosperity as followeth : Look what thou hast about thee that thou holdest most dear, and wouldst be most sorry to lose, and cast that away, so far, and in such sort, as none may ever see it. If thy prosperity change not for all ther, apply thereunto from time to time, for thy case, some such remedy as this is which I have proposed to thee." Polycrates liked this counsel; and having a gold ring set with an emerald engraven, which he used for his seal, he cast it intothe sca; but within a while after this ring was found in a fish's belly, and brought again to Polycrates. Of which when Amasis heard, he renounced, by an express message, the right of friendship and hospitality which he had contracted with Polycrates; alledging for his reason, that he feared he should be forced to sorrow and latuentation for the miseries that would overwhelm his friend. It happened that, after certain days, Orates, lieutenant of Cyrus in the city of Sardis, drew unto him, by crafty means, this minion of fortune, Polycrates, whom he caused to be hanged upon a gibbet, and his body left there to the heats of the day, and the dews of the night. 12. Henry Holland, duke of Exeter and earl of Huntingdon, who married the sister of Edward the Fourth, was driven to such want, that passing into Flanders, Thilp de Comiues saith, ،، that be saw him run on foot, bare-legged, after the duke of Burgundy's train, begging his bread for God's sake; whom the duke of Burgundy at that time not knowing (though they had married two sisters), but hearing afterwards who he was, allotted him a small pension to maintain him; till, not long after, he was found dead upon the shore at Dover, and stripped all naked; but how he came by his death could never, by any inquiry, be brought to light. This was about the thirteenth year of the reign of Edward the Fourth. 13. in the reign of king James the lord Cobham was condemned for high treason; but yet reprieved by the king, though, notwithstanding, he came to a nriserable end. For, before his death, he was extremely lousy for want of apparel and linen; and had perished for hunger, had not a trencher-scraper at court who had been his servant, relieved him with such scraps as he could spare. In this man's house he died, being so poor a place, that he was forced to creep up a ladder through a little hole into his chainber: which was a strange change, be having been a man of seven thousand pounds (10.) Diod. Sicul. L 16. p. 126. Lips. Menit. 1. 2. c. 14, p. 346.-(11.) Herodot.1.3. p 178, 179. Camer, Oper. Subcis. 1. 1. c. 12. p. 38. Lips. Monit. 1. 1. . 5. p. 55.12. Bak. Chron. p. 305. per |