political embarrassments, he became fretful, impatient, and suspicious. So melancholy and iritable was he at times, that it required all the efforts of Buckingham and his mother to rouse him from despondeney. Sometimes he would break out into the most passionate fits of anger; and though his better nature eventually prevailed, yet the manner in which he expressed his regret was frequently quite as unkingly, as had been the previous exhibition of his rage. On one occasion, happening to require some papers relative to the Prince's proposed marriage with a daughter of Spain, he sent for his old and faithful servant, John Gib, a Scotchman, to whom, he imagined, he had intrusted them. Gib, asserting that they had never been in his keeping, and all endeavours to discover them proving vain, the King flew into a violent passion: Gib, in order to assuage his anger, threw himself on his knees at the King's feet, declaring that he was ready to suffer death, should it be ever proved that the papers had been delivered to his custody. James, losing all self-command, was cowardly enough to give his faithful old servant a kick. Gib, instantly, and in natural indignation, rose from his knees, and addressing himself to the King :-" Sir," he said, “I have served you from my youth, and you never found me unfaithful; I have not deserved this insult from you, nor can I bear to live with you after such a disgrace. Fare ye well, Sir; I shall never see your face more;" on which he left the royal presence, mounted his horse, and rode to London. Shortly after this the papers were found, and James became alive to the act of gross injustice of which he had been guilty. He was unmeasured in the terms of reproach which he heaped upon himself, and having despatched messengers in the utmost haste after Gib, declared that he would neither eat, drink, nor sleep, till he again beheld the face of his injured follower. Gib having been induced to return, and having been conducted into the royal presence, James, in his turn, fell on his knees before him, imploring his pardon, and expressing his determination not to rise till he had obtained the forgiveness of his servant. For some time Gib modestly declined, but James would on no account be satisfied till the words of pardon had actually been pronounced.* *Wilson, p. 219. 104 CHAPTER VIII. The King's Presentiment of his Death-his Diseases-his imprudent Indulgence in Fruit. - Communication to the King of his approaching End - his Dying Interviews with Prince Charles-his Death.-Remarks on the Religious Feelings of James.-Motives of his Toleration his Proclamation against a Puritanical Observance of the Sabbath. Suspicion that James met his Death by Poison. Conduct of Buckingham and his Mother.-Eglisham's Accusations.-Curious Tract in the British Museum. - Impeachment of Buckingham in the Reign of Charles the First.-Funeral of King James. Character of that Monarch by Ben Jonson. THE King appears to have entertained a sort of presentiment of his own end. He had been much affected by the deaths of the Duke of Richmond and the Marquis of Hamilton:-"When the branches," he said, "are cut down, the tree cannot long remain."* His last illness commenced with a tertian ague, and was followed by a fever, which proved fatal. The courtiers, in order to console him, reminded him of an old proverb, that an ague in the spring was life for a King: he replied, that the proverb was meant for a young King. James, however, stood little in need of consolation; the courage, in which he had formerly been deficient, seemed eminently conspicuous in his death. He prepared himself for his end with a decency and *Spotswood, p. 646. a fortitude which would have been creditable to a braver man, and was not unworthy of the religion which he professed. We have the authority of his physician, Sir Theodore Mayerne, that the King had been suffering for some time from stone, gout, and gravel; and according to Bishop Goodman, he was guilty of imprudences which were not unlikely to hasten his end. "Truly," says the gossiping Prelate, "I think King James every autumn did feed a little more than moderately upon fruits; he had his grapes, his nectarines, and other fruits, in his own keeping; besides, we did see that he fed very plentifully on them from abroad. I remember that Mr. French of the spicery, who sometimes did present him with the first strawberries, cherries, and other fruits, and kneeling to the King, had some speech to use to him; that he did desire his Majesty to accept them, and that he was sorry they were no better, with such like complimental words; but the King never had the patience to hear him one word, but his hand was in the basket. After this eating of fruit in the spring time, his body fell into a great looseness; which, although while he was young, did tend to preserve his health, yet now, being grown toward sixty, it did a little weaken his body, and going from Theobald's to Newmarket, and stirring abroad when, as the coldness of the year was not yet past almost, it could not be prevented but he must fall into a quartan ague, for recovery whereof the physicians taking one course and the plaister another." His unwieldy size, for his obesity had increased with his years, had rendered such a complication of disorders the more formidable. Besides, he had always conceived such a repugnance to physic, that the doctors, even in his worst attacks, were unable to persuade him to have recourse to it.* As his indisposition became more alarming, he retired to Theobald's, which had ever been his favourite residence, and which was shortly to become the scene of his dissolution. The Lord Keeper Williams (a man whose power of amusing others appears to have been considerable) was no sooner acquainted with the King's danger, than he hastened to the royal presence, and remaining by his bedside till midnight, attempted to cheer and console the sick monarch. The following morning there was a consultation of physicians, who gave it as their opinion that his Majesty's case was hopeless. When this was intimated to the Lord Keeper, with the Prince's permission, he knelt by the bed of the royal patient :-" he came," he said, "with the message of Isaiah to Hezekiah, to exhort him to set his house in order, for that his days would be but few in the world." "I am satisfied," replied the King calmly, “and I desire you to assist me in preparing to go hence, and to be with Christ, whose mercies I pray for, and hope to find.”† * Aulicus Coquinariæ, in Sec. Hist. of James I, vol. ii. p. 287. + Philips's Life of Lord Keeper Williams, p. 143. Echard, |