A London 'Prentice still

Shall prove as good a Man,
As any of your Turkish Knights,

Do all the best you can.
And therewithal he gave him

A Box upon the Ear,
Which broke his Neck afunder,

As plainly doth appear.
Now know, proud Turk, quoth he,

I am no English Boy,
That an with one small Box o'th' Ear,

The Prince of Turks destroy.
When as the King perceived

His Son so strangely flain, His Soul was fore afflicted

With more than mortal Pain ; And in Revenge thereof,

He swore that he should dye The cruel'st Death that ever Man

Beheld with mortal Eye. Two Lyons were prepar'd

This 'Prentice to devour, Near familh'd up with Hunger,

Ten Days within the Tower,
To make them far more fierce

And eager of their Prey,
To glut themselves with humane Gore,

Upon this dreadful Day.
The appointed time of Torment

At length grew near at hand,
When all the noble Ladies

And Barons of the Land, Attended on the King,

To see this 'Prentice slain, And bury'd in the hungry Maws

Of those fierce Lyons twain.

K 5

Then

Then in his Shirt of Cambrick,

With Silks most richly wrought, This worthy London Prentice

Was from the Prison brought, And to the Lyons given

To staunch their Hunger great, Which had not eat in ten Days space

Not one small Bit of Meat.
But God, that knows all Secrets,

The Matter so contriv'd,
That by this young Man's Valour

They were of Life depriv'd;
For being faint for Food,

They scarcely could withstand The noble Force, and Fortitude,

And Courage of his Hand: For when the hungry Lyons,

Had cast on him their Eyes, The Elements did thunder

With the Eccho of their Cryes;
And running all amain

His Body to devour,
Into their Throats he thrust his Arms,

With all his Might and Power :
From thence by manly Valour

Their Hearts he tore in sunder, And at the King he threw them,

To all the People's Wonder:
This I have done, quoth he,

For lovely England's sake,
And for my Country's Maiden Queen

Much more will undertake.
But when the King perceived

His wrothful Lyons Hearts, Afflicted with great Terror,

His Rigour foon reverts,

And

And turned all his Hate

Into Remorse and Love, And said, It is fome Angel

Sent down from Heav'n above. No, no, I am no Angel,

The courteous young Man said, But born in famous England,

Where God's Word is obey'd ; Aflifted by the Heavens,

Who did me thus befriend, Or else they had most cruelly

Brought here my Life to end. The King, in Heart amazed,

Lift up his Eyes to Heaven, And for his foul Offences

Did crave to be forgiven; Believing that no Land

Like England may be seen,
No People better governed

By virtue of a Queen.
So taking up this young Man,

He pardon'd him his Life,
And gave his Daughter to him

To be his wedded Wife;
Where then they did remain,

And live in quiet Peace,
In spending of their happy Days,

In Joy and Love's Increase.

XXVII. The

XXVII. The true Lovers Knot un

tied: Being the right Path whereby to advise Princely Virgins how to behave themselves, by the Example of the

Renowned Princess, the Lady Arabella, and the Second Son of the Lord Seymour, late Earl of Hertford.

To the Tune of Frog's Galliard, ôvс.

The Lady Arabella Stuart, the Heroine of the

following Song (whose Adventures none of our general Historians have at length recorded, few have touch'd upon) was dowbly related to King James the First, in whose Reign se dy'd, for they both sprang from Margaret, the eldest Daughter of King Henry the Seventh, who by her first Husband King James the Fourth of Scotland, had James the Fifth, Father to Mary Queen of Scots, the Mother of James the First of England, and several other Children, whose Names, being foreign to my Purpose, I shall take no Notice of ; after the Death of her first Husband

she marry'd Archibald Douglaffe, Earl of Agnus, by

whom

whom she had a Daughter calld Margaret, who taking to Husband Matthew Earl of Lenox, bore him three Sons, of whom the youngest, Charles, (afterwards Earl of Lenox) was Father to Lady Arabella. Nor was this all, for Mary Queen of Scots, after the Death of her first Husband Francis the Second, of France, was marry'd to Henry Lord Darley, (second Son of Matthew Earl of Lenox, by the Lady Margaret, an elder Brother of Charles Stuart, the Lady Arabella's Father) by whom she had King James. When this Monarch came to the Crown of England, he had some Reason to be jealous of this Lady, not only because of her near Relation to him, but the very first Conspiracy, form’d against King James, was in favour of this Lady, tho' utterly ignorant of it, for the Papists hoping for a Change of Religion, and the disgraced Statesmen for a Change of Government, secretly plotted to make away with King James, and to proclaim the Lady Arabella Queen: However, the Conspiracy was discover'd, the Chief executed, and Arabella prov'd Innocent; but certain it is, their Dengn might have rais'd some ambitious Thoughts in her, which otherwise would not have had Birth; and it was good Policy to take care se should not strengthen her self by too powerful an Alliance. Mean while Sir William Seymour, Son to the Lord Beauchamp, and

Grand