Sir Walter Long's (of Draycot in Wilts) widow, did make a solemn
promise to him on his death-bed, that she would not marry after his
decease, but not long after, one Sir --- Fox, a very beautiful young
gentleman, did win her love; so that notwithstanding her promise
aforesaid, she married him: she married at South-Wraxhall, where the
picture of Sir Walter hung over the parlour door, as it doth now at
Draycot. As Sir --Fox led his bride by the hand from the church,
(which is near to the house) into the parlour, the string of the
picture broke, and the picture fell on her shoulder, and cracked in
the fall. (It was painted on wood, as the fashion was in those days.)
This made her ladyship reflect on her promise, and drew some tears
from her eyes.*
*This story may be true in all its details, except the name of the
lady, who was a daughter of Sir W. Long; she married Somerset Fox,
Esq. See Sandford's Geneal. Hist, of the Kings of England, p. 344.
See Sir Walter Raleigh's history, book 4, chap. 2, sec. 7. The dogs of
the French army, the night before the battle of Novara, ran all to the
Swisses army: the next day, the Swisses obtained a glorious victory
of the French. Sir Walter Raleigh affirms it to be certainly true.
The last battle fought in the north of Ireland, between the
Protestants and the Papists, was in Glinsuly near Letterkenny in the
county of Donegall. Veneras, the Bishop of Clogher, was General of the
Irish army; and that of the Parliament army, Sir Charles Coot. They
pitched their tents on each side the river Suly, and the Papists
constantly persist in it to this very day, that the night before the
action,* a woman of uncommon stature, all in white, appearing to the
said Bishop, admonished him not to cross the river first, to assault
the enemy, but suffer them to do it, whereby he should obtain the
victory. That if the Irish took the water first to move towards the
English, they should be put to a total rout, which came to pass.
Ocahan, and Sir Henry O'Neal, who were both killed there, saw
severally the same apparition, and dissuaded the Bishop from giving
the first onset, but could not prevail upon him. In the mean time, I
find nothing in this revelation, that any common soldier might not
conclude without extraordinary means.
*So an apparition of a woman greater than ordinary, beckoned to
Julius Caesar to pass over the Rubicon, L. Flor. lib. 4. Satyres
appeared to Alexander when he besieged Tyrus; Alexander asked the
divines, what was the signification of it; they told him the meaning
is plain, {Greek Text: Sa Turos} (i.e.) Tyre is thine. Alexander took
the town. Q. Curtius.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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