band of the Lady Frances and be happy with her in all the rites of the marital compact, or whether, if he sued the King for a divorce, the Royal assent might be expected, and the nullity would actually take place."

"Father," quoth the Earl," I come to try Fortune, that fickle goddess, who does good to some, and who persecutes others; be she blind and inconstant, without any determination in all she does, let me now see her beckoning me to follow her steps in the pursuit I meditate, or turning away her head and disowning and rejecting me for seeking to tempt my lot by change."

Forman, while the Earl spoke, brought from a cabinet one image of Fortune furnished with wings, and standing by a wheel; another figure he produced of the same fabled being standing on a wheel, having her eyes hoodwinked with a bandage; a third with a cornucopia

in one hand and the helm of a ship in the other; a fourth that had a globe before her feet, with a sceptre in one hand, and holding a cornucopia in the other.

He next produced his parchments of the celestial houses, tablets, and mathematical instruments;-and while he was setting the horoscope scheme agreeably to the data which Essex had furnished him with, as to his birth and some other matters of preliminary importance, the Earl would now examine the wax figures of Fortune, which the artist had marshalled; these he perceived were pairs, being virile as well as muliebrian objects; and he inferred much from the astrologer's method of proceeding.

When Forman had arranged all his materials, made his calculations and drawn his judgments, he pointed with his delicate ivory wand to the wax figures respectively, and signified that "sorrow attended change, though the

chance of happiness made it sometimes both desirable and necessary;-little as thou valuest the gifts of Venus, she will crown thee with a venter in thy second love, but not till thou hast adventured all things for a distressed lady-then Mars will thee employ. When bishops war, thou'lt all thy thoughts employ in martial feats.-But great then as thou wilt be, the defects men shall charge on thee will add to thy lustre; and when the words of the prophetic Israelite are fulfilled, thou❜lt die in peace an immortal heir of Essex's name."

The Earl was pleased with this farrago of fortune, and then besought the artist "would do him an incantation to witch the woman he disliked most."

"Is she faithless or virtuous to her Lord," demanded the Astrologer?

"She was born on such a day, in such an hour, of such a year, and her birth

place is situate in such a latitude,” replied the Earl; "divine the aspect of the heavens at that period, and tell me whether she jades or mothers it; wilt thou, ancient man, divine me this?"

Forman promised obedience to the wishes of the Earl; but excused himself on the present for lack of his setting glass, which could only be replaced by an artist in Leadenhall Street; yet as this would require time, he proposed the Earl would condescend to visit him again, when he would accomplish the whole to the satisfaction of his own mind, and that of the inquirer into fate. The effect of Forman's speculations upon the mind of the young Earl of Essex was, that he resolved to wait on the King at Whitehall, and solicit his Majesty to allow a divorce to pass between him and the Lady Frances. On the following day, therefore, he' came to the palace to demand an audience with his Majesty. As the Earl entered the

withdrawing room, he found Phillip Herbert in high altercation with Lord Sanquhar, who it appeared had just been rumped by the King for his having suffered Henry IV. to allude to his Majesty as, " David the fidler's son," without resenting, in his sovereign's name, an insult thus unworthily offered to the first magistrate of Britain.

"My Lord of Sanquhar," said James, "how came you to suffer the Frenchman to put sic. an affront on a legitimate monarch, and your natural born prince ?"

"Your Grace," replied Sanquhar, "has the means and the liberty to ask that question at Henry Quatre yourself."

"And are these your points and bearings in our presence, Lord Sanquhar? but I wonder we could expect ought mair frae a Crichton, that could pouch wi' sae guid a grace Henry Quatre's inquiry about your tither ee."