Giving the hand, was also a token of promising; it was a kind of staking their active powers for the performance of some promise or engagement. (See Ezra, 10, 19.) The joining or taking of hands, among the ancients, betokened confederacy, or confirmation of some promise. This is illustrated by Homer’s expression, (Iliad, 21, 286) where Neptune and Minerva appear to Achilles, in a human shape, and confirm their promise, by taking his hand in their’s. So (Iliad, 6, 233) Glaucus and Diomed took hold of each other’s hands, and plighted their faith. On which line, Eustathius remarks, they plighted their faith to each other, by the accustomed ceremony of joining their right hands.[47] We observe the same mode of joining hands in our marriage ceremony; and the custom of shaking hands, has also reference to some engagement for the future, as well as being a token of friendship and amity. Footnote 47: Parkhurst’s Heb. Lex. 271. VILLIERS, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. A treaty of marriage between Charles, prince of Wales, (afterwards Charles I.) and the Infanta of Spain, having been a long time in agitation, Buckingham, in 1623, persuaded Prince Charles to make a journey into Spain, and to fetch home his mistress, the Infanta, by representing to him, how brave and gallant an action it would be, and how soon it would put an end to those formalities, which, though all substantial matters were already agreed upon, might yet retard her voyage to England many months. It is suggested by Lord Clarendon, that Buckingham’s motive for this journey, was an unwillingness that the Earl of Bristol, the ambassador in Spain, should have the sole honour of concluding the treaty of marriage. However, the king was vehemently against this journey, and indeed with good reason; but the solicitations of the prince, and the impetuosity of Buckingham, prevailed.