y on the part of Henry
Julius, Duke of Brunswick, who had married the Princess Eliza of
Denmark; but it is not likely that so trivial an affair, if it were
known at court, could have called down upon him the hostility of the
King's advisers.

The Duke of Brunswick had, in 1590, paid a visit to Uraniburg, and had
particularly admired an antique brass statue of Mercury, about a cubit
long, which Tycho had placed in the roof of the hypocaust or central
crypt of the Stiern-berg observatory. By means of a concealed mechanism,
it moved round in a circular orbit. The Duke requested the statue and
its machinery, which Tycho gave him, on the condition that he should
obtain a model of it, for the purpose of having another executed by a
skilful workman. The Duke not only forgot his promise, but paid no
attention to the letters which were addressed to him. Tycho was justly
irritated at this unprincely conduct, and ordered this anecdote to be
inserted in the description of Uraniburg which he was now preparing for
publication.

In the year 1592, Tycho lost his distinguished friend and correspondent
the Prince of Hesse, and astronomy one of its most active and
intelligent cultivators. His grief on this occasion was deep and
sincere, and he gave utterance to his feelings in an impassioned elegy,
in which he recorded the virtues and talents of his friend. Prince
Maurice, the son and successor of the Landgrave, continued, with the
assistance of able observers, to keep up the reputation of the
observatory of Hesse-Cassel; and the observations which were there made
were afterwards published by Snellius. The extensive and valuable
correspondence between Tycho and the Landgrave was prepared for
publication about the beginning of 1593, and contains also the letters
of Rothman and Rantzau.

For several years the studies of Tycho had been treated with an
unwilling toleration by the Danish Court. Many of the nobles envied the
munificent establishment which he had received from Frederick, and the
liberal pension which he drew from his treasury. But among his most
active enemies were some physicians, who envied his reputation as a
successful and a gratuitous practitioner of the healing art. Numbers of
invalids flocked to Huen, and diseases, which resisted all other methods
of cure, are said to have yielded to the panaceal prescription of the
astrologer. Under the influence of such motives, these individuals
succeeded in exciting against Tycho