þet annum, and of a personal estate of thirty thousand pounds, his lady also being rich, who yet, in this his extremity of misery, would not give him of the Crumbs that fell from her table.

14. Hugolin Giradesca of Pisa was the chief of the faction of the Guelphs that stuck to the pope, having foiled a part of the Gibbelines, who affected the emperor, and having struck a fear into the rest, became so great amongst those of his party, that he commanded with a white wand; was both in name and in deed lord of his city, a rich and noble personage, learned, magnificent, married to a great lady, had goodly children and grandchildren, abounding in all manner of wealth, more than he could wish; living happy in all pleasure, both in the judgment of himself and all his citizens. He made a solemn feast upon his birth-day; and having invited all his friends, he set himself to the displaying of all his prosperity and magnifying his exploits: and, at last he asks one of his bosom friends, if there wanted any thing to make his felicity complete? Who, considering what little stay there is in worldly matters, and how they roll and fly away in a moment (or, rather, inspired from above) made this answer : Certainly the wrath of God cannot be long from this thy so great prosperity." Soon after, the forces of the Guelphs beginning to decay, the Gibbelines run to arms, beset the house of this prosperous Hugolin, broke down the gates, slew one of his sons, and a grandchild that opposed their ent ance, faid hold on Hugolin himself, and imprisoned him, with two other of his sons, and three grandchildren, in a tower; shut all the gates upon them, and threw the keys into the river Arne, that ran near the tower. Here Hugolin saw those goodly youths of his dying between his arms, himself also at death's door. He cried, and besought his enemies to be content that he might endure some human punishment, and to grant that he might be confessed and communicate before he died. But their hearts were all flint; and all be requested with tears, they donied with derision: so he died pitifully, together with his sons and grandchildren that

were inclosed with him. So sudden, and oftentimes so tragical, are the revolutions of that life which seems most to promise a continuance of prosperity.

15. Amongst all those that have been advanced by the favour of mighty princes, there was never so great a minion, nor a more happy man in his life, until his death, than was Ibraim Bassa, chief vizir to Solyman the Great Turk. This bassa finding himself thus caressed by his lord and master, he besought him on a day (as he talked with him with great familiarity) that he would forbear to make so much of him, lest being elevated too high, and flourishing beyond measure, it should occasion his lord to change his sentiments, and plucking him from the top of fortune's wheel, to hurl him into the lowest of misery. Solyman then swore unto him, that "while he lived he would never take away his life." But afterwards moved against him, by the ill success of the Persian war, by him persuaded, and some suspicion of treachery, yet feeling himself tied by his oath, he forebore to put him to death; till being persuaded and informed by a talisman, or Turkish priest, that a man asleep cannot be counted amongst the living, in regard the whole life of man is a perpetual watch, Solyman sent one night an eunuch, who with a sharp razor cut his throat, as he was quietly sleeping upon a pallet in the court. And thus this great favourite had not so much as the favour to be acquainted with his master's displeasure, but was sent out of the world unawares :

his dead body was reviled and cursed by Solyman; after which a weight was tied to it. and it was cast into the sea.

16. George Villiers was the third son of Sir George Villiers, knight: he was first sworn servant to king James, then his cap-bearerat large; the summer following, admitted in ordinary; the next St. George's day he was knighted, and made gent eman of the king's bed-chamber, and the same day had an annual pension of a thousand pounds given him out of the court of wards. At new-year's tide following the king chose him master of the horse. After this he was installed of the most noble order of the garter. In

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the next August he created him baron of Whaddon, and viscount Viliers. In January of the same year he was advanced earl of Buckingham, and sworn of his majesty's privy council. The March ensuing he attended the king into Scotland, and was likewise sworn a counsellor in that kingdom. At new-year's tide after he was created marquis of Buckingham, and made lord admiral of England, chief justice in Eyre of all the parks and forests on the south side of Trent, master of the king's bench office, head stew ard of Westminster, and constable of Windsor Castle; chosen by the king the chief concomitant of the heir-apparent in his journey into Spaiu; then made duke of Buckingham, and his patent sent him thither. After his return from thence, he was made lord warden of the Cinque-ports, and steward of the manor of Hampton-court. But in the midst of all these honours of the duke, upon Saturday, the twenty-third of August, when after breakfast he came out of the room (into a kind of lobby somewhat darker, and which led to another chamber, where divers waited) wtih Sir Thomas Fryer close at his ear, in the moment as the said knight withdrew himself from the duke, one John Felton (a younger brother of mean fortune in Suffolk) gave him with a back-blow a deep wound into his left side, leaving the knife in his body; which the duke himself pulling out, on a sudden effusion of spirits, he sunk down under the table in the next room, and immediately expired. One thing in this enormous accident is, I must confses, to me beyond all wonder, as I received it from a gentleman of judicious and diligent observation, (and one whom the duke well favoured), that within the space of not many minutes after the fall of the body, and removal thereof into the first room, there was not a living creature in either of the chambers with the body, no more than if it had lain in the sands of Ethiopia: whereas commonly in such cases, you shall note every where a great and sudden conflux of the people unto the place, to hearken and to see; but it seems the horror of the fact stupified all curiosity. Thus died this great peer, in

the thirty-sixth year of his age, irra time of great recourse unto him, and dependance upon him; the house and town full of his dependants and suitors, his dutchess in an upper room, scarce yet out of her bed; and the court at this time not above six or nine miles from him, which had been the stage of his greatness.

17. Charles the Gross, the twentyninth king of France, and emperor of the West, began to reign in the year 885. The eyes of the French were fixed upon him as the man that should restore their estate, after many disorders and confu sions. He went into Italy, and expelled the Saracens that threatened Rome. Being returned, he found the Normans dispersed in divers coasts of his realm; Charles marched with his army against them, but at the first encounter was overthrown. This check, though the loss was small, struck a great terror, and at last caused an apparent impossibility to succour Neustria, and recover it from so great forces. He was therefore advised to treat with them, to make them of enemies friends, and to leave them that which he could not take from them. He yielded Neustria to them by his own authority, without privity of the estates; so these Normans called it Normandy. By this and some other things he fell into a deep hatred with the French; upon which Charles fell sick, and that sickness was accompanied with a distemper of the mind, through jealousy conceived against his queen Richarda. After this the French and Germans dispossesed him of the empire, and gave it to Arnold; and the French ejected him from the regency of that realm, substituting in his room Eudes, or Odo, duke of Angiers. This poor prince, deposed from all his dignities, abandoned by every man, in his prosperity had so ill provided for himself that he had not a house wherein to shelter him: being banished the court, he was driven to a poor village in Suevia, where he lived some days in extreme want, withont any means of his own, or relief from any man. In the end he died, neither pitied nor lamented, in a corner unknown save for this, to have been the theatre of so extraordinary a tragedy. And surely,

for