i. e. Often even in battles have the Gods of the woods been heard to speak, and in troublesome times, when the affairs of governments have gone wrong, and been in disorder and turmoil, voices have been known to steal upon the ears of persons, that came as it were from a corner, but they knew not whence, and told them important truths. Of which kind there are out of a great many, two examples, and those indeed very rare and extraordinary. For not long before the city was taken, a voice was heard from the grove of Vesta, which went from the foot, and basis of the palace, sloping and bending into a new road, that the city walls and gates should be repaired: and that unless care was taken of it, the consequence would be, that Rome would be taken. This being omitted, when provision might have been made, was explained after that most signal and dreadful overthrow. For the altar, which we see enclosed, and that fronts that place, was a consecrated altar. "--- Negue solum deorum voces Pythagorei observaverunt, sed etiam hominum, quae vacant omina --- ." i. e. Neither did the Pythagorean Philosophers observe the voices of Gods only, but also those of men, which they called Omens. "Nero --- & lo'n dit qu'on entendoit un son de trumpette dans les collines d'alentour, des gemissemens sur le tombeau de sa mere." Nero, they say, heard the sound of a trumpet among the hills and the rocks round about him, and groans over the tomb of his mother. In the life of King Henry IV. of France, written by the Arch-Bishop of Paris, it is recorded, that Charles IX. (who caused the massacre) was wont to hear screaches, like those of the persons massacred. St. Augustin heard a voice, saying, TOLLE, LEGE, take, read. He took up his bible, and dipt on Rom. 13. 13. "Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness," &c. And reformed his manners upon it. One Mr. Smith, a practitioner of physic at Tamworth in Warwickshire, an understanding sober person, reading in Hollinshead's Chronicle, found a relation of a great fight between Vortigern and Hengest, about those parts, at a place called Colemore: a little time after, as he lay awake in his bed, he heard a voice, that said unto him, "You shall shortly see some of the bones of those men and horses slain, that you read of:" he was surprized at the voice, and asked in the name of God, who it was that spoke to him. The voice made answer, that he should not trouble himself about that; but what he told him should come to pass. Shortly after, as he went to see Colonel Archer (whose servants were digging for marle) he saw a great many bones of men and horses; and also pot-sherds; and upon the view it appeared to be according to the description in Hollinshead' s Chronicle; and it was the place where the fight was; but it is now called Blackmore.