hope of recovery,' the astrologer
said there was 'no danger of death,' and 'that he would be sufficiently
well in five or six weeks; and so he was.' This Mrs. Lisle, who brought
the specimen, being apparently one of Lilly's she friends, we will add
that she made herself remarkable by saying at the martyrdom of King
Charles I, in 1648, that 'her blood leaped within her to see the tyrant
fall.' For this, and for other things, the woman was finally beheaded;
it being impossible otherwise to stop her tongue; and I have no tear for
her.

Lilly's most intimate friend, however, was Elias Ashmole, Esq. Born in
1617, the name for him agreed on among his friends was Thomas; but at
the baptismal font the godfather, 'by a more than ordinary impulse of
spirit,' said Elias; and under that prophetic name the boy grew up to
manhood, and became for a time rather famous in high places. He was a
learned antiquary, and made a description of the consular and imperial
coins at Oxford, and presented it, in three folio volumes, to the
library there. He made also a catalogue and description of the king's
medals; a book on the Order of the Garter; a book entitled, _Fasciculus
Chemicus_, and another, _Theatrum Chemicum_. He published, moreover, a
book called 'The Way to Bliss;' but if he himself ever arrived at that
thing, he found the way uncomfortable, if we may judge from his diary,
half filled with record of his ailments, surfeits, and diseases, and of
the sweatings, purgings, and leechings consequent thereupon, or intended
as preventives thereof. To one kind of bliss, however, he did certainly
attain--that of high society; dining often with lords, earls, and dukes,
bishops and archbishops, foreign envoys, ambassadors, and princes; and
they, many of them, came in turn, and dined with him, who had made a
book on the Order of the Garter, and who understood the art of dining.
Continental kings sent to this man chains of gold, and his gracious
majesty, Charles II, was very gracious to him, and gave him fat offices,
mostly sinecures: and over and above all he gave a pension. This world
is a very remarkable one--especially remarkable in the upper crust of
it.

Lilly's acquaintance with Ashmole began in 1646, and continued till
death did them part in 1681. Through all these thirty-five years there
was a close intimacy, Ashmole being a frequent visitor at Lilly's house
in the country, staying there often months at a time, and Lilly in
return coming