g the part of a young girl who was accused of
witchcraft, his enemies asserted that he was himself a sorcerer, and
raised such a storm over his head, that he was forced to fly the city.
After this he became physician to Louisa de Savoy, mother of King Francis
I. This lady was curious to know the future, and required her physician to
cast her nativity. Agrippa replied that he would not encourage such idle
curiosity. The result was, he lost her confidence, and was forthwith
dismissed. If it had been through his belief in the worthlessness of
astrology, that he had made his answer, we might admire his honest and
fearless independence; but when it is known that, at the very same time,
he was in the constant habit of divination and fortune-telling, and that
he was predicting splendid success, in all his undertakings, to the
Constable of Bourbon, we can only wonder at his thus estranging a powerful
friend through mere petulance and perversity.

He was about this time invited, both by Henry VIII. of England, and
Margaret of Austria, governess of the Low Countries, to fix his residence
in their dominions. He chose the service of the latter, by whose influence
he was made historiographer to the Emperor Charles V. Unfortunately for
Agrippa, he never had stability enough to remain long in one position, and
offended his patrons by his restlessness and presumption. After the death
of Margaret he was imprisoned at Brussels, on a charge of sorcery. He was
released after a year; and quitting the country, experienced many
vicissitudes. He died in great poverty in 1534, aged forty-eight years.

While in the service of Margaret of Austria, he resided principally at
Louvain, in which city he wrote his famous work on the _Vanity and
Nothingness of Human Knowledge_. He also wrote to please his royal
mistress, a treatise upon the _Superiority of the Female Sex_, which he
dedicated to her in token of his gratitude for the favours she had heaped
upon him. The reputation he left behind him in these provinces was any
thing but favourable. A great number of the marvellous tales that are told
of him relate to this period of his life. It was said, that the gold which
he paid to the traders with whom he dealt, always looked remarkably
bright, but invariably turned into pieces of slate and stone in the course
of four-and-twenty hours. Of this spurious gold he was believed to have
made large quantities by the aid of the devil, who, it would appear from