XXIV. MODERATION.

ARTHUR PLANTAGENET Viscount Lisle, natural son to King Edward the Fourth, and (which is the greatest honour to his memory) direct ancestor, in the fifth degree, to the right honourable and most renowned lord general George Monk, was, for a fault of his servants, (intending to betray Calais to the king of France,) committed to the Tower by King Henry the Eighth, where, well knowing the fury and fierceness of that king, he daily expected death.

But the innocence of this lord appearing after much search, the king sent him a rich ring off his own finger, with so comfortable words that, at the hearing thereof, a sudden joy over-charged his heart, whereof he died that night;⁴¹⁴¹Speed. Chron. p. 692. 264so fatal was not only the anger, but the love, of that king.

England for these many years hath been in a languishing condition, whose case hath been so much the sadder than this lord’s was, because conscious of a great guilt, whereby she hath justly incurred God’s displeasure. If God of his goodness should be pleased to restore her to his favour, may he also give her moderation safely to digest and concoct her own happiness, that she may not run from one extreme to another, and excessive joy prove more destructive unto her than grief hath been hitherto.