Volume I Part 11 (1/2)
”And you may recollect, my Lord,” said the d.u.c.h.ess, ”that George Buchanan, the famed Scottish historian, relates the very remarkable forewarning which James the Fourth of Scotland had in the church of St.
Michael, Linlithgow, from an old man of venerable aspect, and clad in blue habiliments. This person forewarned the king from his proceeding in his expedition against England, fore-telling to him that it would prove his ruin. The queen also remonstrated with him against the project of invasion, by acquainting him with the visions and frightful dreams which she nightly encountered. But no warning could avert his destiny. And he fell with a number of his n.o.bility in the ever memorable field of Flodden Sept. 9, 1513.”
”There is,” said the Duke, ”another case in point; it is that of Walter Devereux, Earl of Ess.e.x, who foretold that his son, Robert Devereux, afterwards Earl of Ess.e.x, should never survive his thirty-sixth year; observing at the same time that his father had died at that period of life, and that he would himself die at that age. The death of his son, Robert Devereux, Earl of Ess.e.x, who was beheaded in the thirty-fourth year of his age, 1567, is a well known and recorded fact.”
Here the d.u.c.h.ess rejoined:--”And you may recollect too, my dear Lord, that Mezeray, the historian of France, records, that it had been foretold to Henry the Fourth of France and Navarre, that he should die in a coach; so that upon the least jolt he would cry out, as if he beheld the grave opened ready to swallow him. And it is as well known that this prediction took place, Henry the Fourth having been a.s.sa.s.sinated in his coach as he was proceeding to the a.r.s.enal to consult with the immortal Sully, when he was stabbed by the knife of an a.s.sa.s.sin, 1610.”
”Sully too,” rejoined Lady Lucy, ”in his admirable memoirs, makes mention of those black presages which, it is but too certain, this unfortunate prince had of his cruel destiny; they were indeed dreadful and surprising to the last degree!”
Lady Adelaide next paid a short tribute to this learned and mystical investigation:--”It may not be amiss,” she said, ”briefly to notice the prediction of the death of the Duke of Buckingham, as related by Lord Clarendon in his history, _and built_, as he emphatically expresses it, _upon better foundations of credit than usually such discourses are founded_.--His account is strikingly remarkable; but to recount the accompanying circ.u.mstances would occupy too much time, and seriously intrude on the pleasantry of the company by entering into the awful and appalling detail; I must beg, therefore, to refer those friends who may be desirous to gratify their curiosity on this subject to consult the pages of the n.o.ble historiographer. The presages of our poet Dryden are deserving of notice, he was extremely addicted to judicial astrology: upon the birth of his son he took his horoscope, and all his calculations respecting him marvellously were accomplished; and which are too recent in the recollection of those present to render it necessary for me to dwell upon; only to observe, that these astrological calculations were fulfilled with an accuracy almost amounting to mathematical correctness.”
It came next to Sir Patricius Placebo's turn to contribute to these ghostly recollections, who began with a stately hem. ”I rather think I can notify to this n.o.ble company a very remarkable circ.u.mstance, and I flatter myself indeed it is one not generally known. It is recorded in the life of the very erudite and estimable scholar, John H. Hottinger, that when he ascended the pulpit of the academy of Basle to make _a farewell oration_ to that society previous to his departure for the city of Leyden, where he had been appointed Professor of the Oriental Languages at the College of Leyden, he observed a line written upon it, which much disturbed him, and surprised the whole auditory, as being prophetical of his death, which happened soon after. The line was from Ovid:--
'_Carmina jam moriens, canit exequialia cygnus._'
'The dying swan his fun'ral song doth sing.'
Shortly after this the very learned and accomplished scholar was drowned with part of his family in the river Lemit, in the year 1667. The due application of this celebrated line, and the a.n.a.logy of the water-bird fore-telling the time and manner of his death--hem!
DOSS MOI, TANE STIGMEN!
Yes, doubtless, there is much grave matter for deep reflection in this well-authenticated event.”
Lord Glandarah prepared to yield his contribution to the strange topic under discussion. His Lords.h.i.+p had resided nearly all his life upon the continent; he was a Roman Catholic, and this, it was believed, was the disposing reason for his living abroad. He spoke broken English so like a foreigner, that he might have been almost mistaken for one, as has been already observed in a previous chapter. ”Gad save my soul, my Lady d.u.c.h.ess, I do remember one of a very remarkable occurrence that happened some few years ago when I was travelling through Normandy. My Lord Roscommon, being then a boy of ten years of age, had preternatural intelligence of his father's death. Gad save my soul, it is the very most extraordinary circ.u.mstance to be sure! Your Grace must know that it happened at Caen: one day his Lords.h.i.+p was, as it were, madly extravagant in playing, leaping, getting over the tables, and playing, Gad save my soul! many other wild gambols. He was, _sans doubte_, wont to be sober, staid, lad enough. Those who saw him exclaimed, 'heaven grant this bodes no ill-luck to him!' In the heat of this extravagant fit he suddenly cried out, 'My father is dead!' And _a.s.surement_, Gad save my soul! a fortnight after accounts arrived from Ireland that the Earl of Roscommon was dead! This account was told me, Gad save my soul, by Mr. Knolles, who had been his governor, and at that time with him.
And, Gad save my soul! I have often heard my Lord Roscommon's relations affirm this account to be true. Now, Gad save my soul! could any thing be more extraordinary? _Sans doute c'est impossible!_”
The hour was indeed very late; and the guests arose, and making due obeisance, withdrew. Adelaide, according to the good old fas.h.i.+on, embraced her parents, and retired to her chamber. But she had no sooner lain down to rest than she heartily repented of what she had done. The tempest continued with unabated rage; so much so indeed that the guests departed not from the Castle, but there found a safe retreat from ”the pelting of the pitiless storm.” The storm still continued to increase; the roaring waves of the Atlantic thundered against the sh.o.r.e, and burst upon the firm foundations of Tyrconnel Castle.
Adelaide's chamber was ever and anon illuminated with brilliant flashes of vivid lightning; and often did she wish the mysterious deed undone!
---- ---- ----”Oh, Between the acting of a dreadful thing And the first motion, all the interim is Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream!”
But what Adelaide saw upon that awful night ever remained untold.--She could never be prevailed upon to divulge the tremendous and frightful circ.u.mstances of that eventful night. The next morning, as it afterwards appeared, she complained of being very unwell, and kept her bed for some days. The blame was very discreetly thrown upon her having eaten too many nuts--having danced too much; and, moreover, supper having disagreed with her; besides a variety of _et cetera_ explanations. It was a long period before Adelaide resumed her usual serenity and gaiety of temper; and whenever her friends or acquaintance would interrogate her upon the adventures of that memorable night, she would a.s.sume much reserve, and seemed displeased: this the only occasion, it was by all remarked, that she had ever been observed to have appeared displeased since they first had the happiness to be acquainted with her.
The unwarrantable practice of inquiring into futurity prevailed very generally at and before the period which we write of; and most strange to say, at times the sacred volume of the Scriptures,[21] and at others the poems of Virgil and Homer, were consulted for oracular purposes. The _sortes Prenestinae_, _sortes Homerianae_, and _sortes Virgilianae_, which were modes of inquiring into the secrets of futurity, are well known to the cla.s.sic reader. A remarkable instance of the trial of this latter sortilege occurred to King Charles I. when at the city of Oxford, during the civil wars. Going one day to inspect the Boedlian Library, His Majesty was shown, along with other volumes, an early copy of Virgil, beautifully printed and exquisitely bound. Lord Falkland, to amuse the King, insisted upon His Majesty's trying his fortune by the _sortes Virgilianae_; whereupon the King, opening the volume, hit upon the fourth aeneid, line 615, which much disconcerted him.
[21] Even so recently as during Wesley's time [See Southey's Life of Wesley] will be perceived the fondness of this celebrated preacher for divination by lot, and by the casual opening of the Bible, expecting thereby the peculiar and immediate guidance of the Almighty!
The pa.s.sage is prophetic of the fortunes of aeneas, and, _mutato nomine_, it was applicable to the royal martyr.[22]
[22] For the gratification of the curious we here subjoin the quotation from Virgil, with which is given a translation of the remarkable lines by Dryden:--
”At bello audacis populi, vexatus et armis Finibus extorris, complexu avulsus Juli, Auxilium imploret; videatque indigna suorum Funera: nec quum se sub leges pacis iniquae Tradiderit, regno aut optata luce fruatur: Sed cadat ante diem, mediaque inhumatus arena.”
VIRGIL ae. IV. 1. 615.
”Yet shall a race untamed, and haughty foes, His peaceful entrance with dire arms oppose: Oppress'd with numbers in th' unequal field, His men discouraged, and himself expell'd, Let him for succour sue from place to place, Torn from his subjects and his son's embrace.