; and we
will look first at some of his doings in the interim. With another
general our astrologer had a meeting too, but with him--General
Fairfax--there was talk, not so full of meaning to me as the silence of
Cromwell. 'There being,' says Lilly, 'in those times, some smart
difference between the army and Parliament, the headquarters of the army
were at Windsor, whither I was carried with a coach and four horses, and
John Boker (an astrologer) with me. We were welcomed thither, and
feasted in a garden where General Fairfax lodged. We were brought to the
general, who bid us kindly welcome to Windsor.' Lilly tells what Fairfax
said, and what he himself said in reply; but if these speeches were all
that was there said and done, the coach and four, and the time spent,
seem to me wasteful. The speeches ended, 'we departed, and went to visit
Mr. Peters (Hugh Peters), the minister, who lodged in the castle; whom
we found reading an idle pamphlet come from London that morning.' He
said--what gives proof, if proof be needed, that there was idle talk
current in that time, as indeed there is in all times.

Our astrologer, professing a high art, standing above the common level,
did not give 'up to party what was meant for mankind.' The stars look
down, from their high places, on sublunary things, with a sublime
indifference; and he, their interpreter, was at the service of all
comers, or of all who could pay. Many came to him; among others came
'Madam Whorwood,' from King Charles, who intended to escape from Hampton
Court, where he was held prisoner by the army. She came to inquire 'in
what quarter of this nation he (the king) might be most safe?' Lilly,
after 'erection of his figure,' said, 'about twenty miles from London,
and in Essex,' 'he might continue undisturbed;' but the poor king,
misguided by himself, or others, 'went away in the night time westward,
and surrendered to Hammond in the Isle of Wight. Twice again, according
to Lilly, Madam Whorwood came to him, asking advice and assistance for
the king. This Madam Whorwood I have not met with elsewhere in my
reading, and the name may be a fictitious one; but that King Charles, in
his straits, sought aid of William Lilly, who by repute could read the
stars, is not improbable. In 1648, Lilly gave to the council of state
'some intelligence out of France,' which he got by means not
astrological, or in any way supernatural; and the council thereupon gave
him 'in money fifty pou