shall be drowned without dint of the sword. Then shall
come in the French king, and he shall land at Waborne Hope, eighteen
miles from Norwich: there he shall be let in by a false mayor, and that
shall he keep for his lodging for awhile; then at his return shall he be
met at a place called Redbanke, thirty miles from Westchester, where at
the first affray shall be slain nine thousand Welchmen and the double
number of enemies."

These sort of predictions, often accompanied by symbolical illustrations,
continued to gain popularity, and were made use of at various periods to
serve the purposes of the people. Sir Walter Scott's "Essays on the
Prophecies of Thomas the Rhymer," shew the application made of them in
the time of the Stuarts. In the reign of Henry VIII., they excited so
much alarm, as to cause an act to be passed, which declared, "that if any
person should print, write, speak, sing, or declare to any other person,
of the king or any other person, any such false prophecies upon occasion
of any arms, fields, beasts, fowls, or such like things, they shall be
deemed guilty of felony, without benefit of the clergy."

The confession of Richard Byshop, of Bungay, when arraigned before the
Privy Council a few years prior to the date of the above act, shews upon
what grounds the fear it expresses was founded.

THE CONFESSION OF RICHARD BYSHOP, OF BUNGAY.

"Memorandum: that the said Richard Byshop saith, that he met with one
Robert Seyman, at Tyndale Wood, the 11th day of May, about nine of
the clock, in the twenty-ninth year of the reign of our sovereign
lord King Henry the Eighth, and after such salutation as they had
then, the said Richard Byshop said to the said Robert, 'What tythings
hear you? Have you any musters about you?' And the said Robert said
'No.' Then the said Richard said, 'This is a hard world for poor
men.' And the said Robert said, 'Truly it is so.' Then the said
Richard said, 'Ye seem to be an honest man, and such a one as a man
may open his mind unto.' And the said Robert said, 'I am a plain
man; ye may say to me what ye woll.' And then the said Richard said,
'We are so used now-a-days at Bungay as was never seen afore this;
for if two or three good fellows be walking together, the constables
come to them, and woll know what communication they have had, or else
they shall be stocked. And as I have heard lately at