Stuart, who also died of the wounds he received in the encounter.

According to Anthony Wood, Earl William was in person "rather majestic than elegant, and his presence, whether quiet or in motion, was full of stately gravity." He speaks of him as the "very picture and viva effigies of nobility." The earl, among his other accomplishments, was a poet, and the author of some "amorous and not inelegant airs," which were set to music by his contemporaries. The following graceful trifle affords an agreeable specimen of his muse:

"Dry those fair, those crystal eyes,
Which like glowing fountains rise

To drown those banks; grief's sullen brooks
Would better flow from furrowed looks;

Thy lovely face was never meant

To be the seat of discontent.

"Then clear those watery eyes again,
That else portend a lasting rain,
Lest the clouds which settle there
Prolong my winter all the year;
And thy example others make,
In love with sorrow for thy sake."

The goddess of his idolatry was Christian, daughter of Edward, Lord Bruce. She afterward became the wife of William Cavendish, second Earl of Devonshire.

Some remarkable circumstances attended the earl's decease. It had been foretold by his tutor

Sandford, and afterward by the mad prophetess,
Lady Davies, that he would either not complete,
or would die on the anniversary of, his fiftieth
birthday. That these predictions were actually
fulfilled, appears by the following curious passage
in Clarendon's "History of the Rebellion:"
"A
short story may not be unfitly inserted, it being
frequently mentioned by a person of known integ-
rity, whose character is here undertaken to be set
down; who at that time being on his way to Lon-
don, met at Maidenhead some persons of quality,
of relation or dependence upon the Earl of Pem-
broke, Sir Charles Morgan, commonly called
General Morgan, who had commanded an army
in Germany, and defended Stoad; Doctor Feild,
then Bishop of St. David's; and Doctor Chafin,
the earl's then chaplain in his house, and much in
his favour. At supper one of them drank a health
to the lord steward; upon which another of them
said that he believed his lord was at that time very
merry, for he had now outlived the day which his
tutor Sandford had prognosticated upon his nativity
he would not outlive; but he had done it now, for
that was his birthday, which had completed his
age to fifty years. The next morning, by the time
they came to Colebrook, they met with the news
of his death."

On the fatal day, the earl had engaged himself to sup with the Countess of Bedford. During the meal he appeared unusually well, and remarked

L

that he would never again trust a woman's prophecy. A few hours afterward he was attacked by apoplexy, and died during the night. Granger, to make the story more remarkable, relates that when the earl's body was opened, in order to be embalmed, the incision was no sooner made than the corpse lifted its hand. The anecdote, he adds, was told by a descendant of the Pembroke family, who had often heard it related. The earl died at his house in London, called Baynard's Castle, on the 10th of April, 1630, and was buried near his father in Salisbury Cathedral.

The portrait of Earl William has been painted by Vandyke, and his character drawn by Lord Clarendon. The latter should be his epitaph; it is one of the most beautiful delineations of that illustrious historian.

CHAPTER II.

PHILIP HERBERT, EARL OF PEMBROKE AND

MONTGOMERY.

The Earl's Character-King James's Partiality for Him — His Progress at Court - His Appearance at the Court of Elizabeth- His Marriage to Lady Susan Vere- The Wedding Banquet and Mask - Montgomery's Insolence and Cowardice -He Is Horsewhipped by Ramsey - The Earl's Vanity as a Patron of Literature - His Second Wife- His Political Apostasy-Burlesque of His Speech to the University of Oxford - His Study of Physiognomy - His Death.

PHILIP, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, the "memorable simpleton" of Walpole, unfortunately dimmed the lustre of a proud name by his cowardice, arrogance, and folly. A favourite who turns rebel can have few friends, and Montgomery, who was both, has had no admirers.

The earl was the second son of the celebrated Mary, Countess of Pembroke, nephew of Sir Philip Sidney, and younger brother of Earl William. He was born about the year 1582.

He was the first acknowledged favourite of King James, after his accession to the English throne. His handsome face, his love of dogs and horses,

and especially his taste for hunting, rendered him peculiarly acceptable to that monarch. His influence remained unimpaired till the appearance of Robert Carr at court, an event which quickly turned the current of royal favour. However, as Montgomery neither remonstrated with James, nor showed any bitterness at his altered position, the king, who above all things loved ease and quiet, so far appreciated his forbearance as to regard him ever after as his second favourite, whoever might chance to be the first. On his death-bed James gave the greatest proof of his confidence in the earl. When the suspicion broke on the dying monarch, that Buckingham and his mother were tampering with his life, it was to Montgomery that he is said to have exclaimed, trustingly, "For God's sake, look that I have fair play!"

The earl received his education at New Col

lege, Oxford. On the 4th of June, 1605, he was created Earl of Montgomery, and on the 10th of May, 1608, was made a Knight of the Garter. The favours which he obtained from James were not substantial, for during this reign he rose no higher than to be a lord of the bedchamber. the reign of Charles the First, however, he became lord chamberlain, and, to the discredit of the University, Chancellor of Oxford. He succeeded his brother as Earl of Pembroke, 10th April, 1630.

In

His first appearance at court had been in the lifetime of Elizabeth, where, though a mere boy