The old man having received this answer, was much troubled, thinking his own death predicted thereby, not imagining what his son had done: but he was soon quieted of that suspicion, for within two days the young man died; when a servant (who knew the circumstance) informed him of the truth of the whole matter. At divers other times, when persons of quality came to visit her, she delivered the following prophecies: “Before the Ouse Bridge and Trinity Church meets, they shall build it in the day and it shall fall in the night, until they get the highest stone of Trinity Church the lowest stone of Ouse Bridge.” This came to pass; for Trinity steeple in York was blown down with a tempest, and Ouse Bridge broken down with a flood, and what they did in the day time in repairing the bridge fell down in the night, till at last they laid the highest stone of the steeple for the foundation of the Bridge. “A time shall happen when a ship shall come sailing up the Thames, till it comes against London, and the master of the ship will ask the captain why he weeps, since he has made so good a voyage. And he will say, and what a good city this was, none in the world comparable to it, and now there’s scarce a house left, that can let us drink for our money.” These last words were sadly verified after the dreadful fire of London in 1666, when there was not a house left along the Thames side from the Tower to the Temple. About this time, some differences arising betwixt King Henry VIII. and the French king, great preparations for war were made in England, the drums beating in every county to summon voluntary valour to express itself in defence of their king and country. Many heroic spirits who made honour their aim, not dreading dangers, now came forward, and indeed, so many appeared under Mars’ banner, that he who was furnished with limbs and an estate, and declined the service, was called a coward. There was then living in the North a young heir, who was newly come to his estate; one whose tongue was all fire, and his heart all ice; who would kill thousands by his words, but durst not venture to do anything in deeds; this gallant being by some of his equals pricked on to make his appearance in the field of Mars, and not to lie sleeping at home, when fame summoned him forth to action, knew not what to do in this case; loath was he to lose his loved life; and yet the aspersion of a coward, even to a coward himself, is of all things most odious; he therefore promised that none should be more willing than he to spend his blood in the quarrel of that country from whence he received his dear life; but yet he resolved within himself not to set one step forward in that path of danger till he had first consulted with Mother Shipton, concerning what success he should have in his journey; if it was bad, he resolved by a feigned sickness to evade it; thinking it no good policy for a man to part with that life in an instant, which with great cost and care had