This seems to refer to the Welsh and the Irish serving the King, for very few lived to return back again to their own country. _The following Prophecies by Mother Shipton_, (_extracted from Lilly’s collection_, _with his remarks_,) _being rather quaint in the composition_, _are left for the reader to decypher_. (_a_) There will be a great battel between England and Scotland, and they will be pacified for a time; and when they come at (_b_) Bramma-moore they fight, and are again pacified for a time: Then there will be a great battel between England and Scotland at (_c_) Knavesmore: Then they will be pacified for a while: Then there will be a great battel between England and Scotland at (_d_) Storktonmore; then will Ravens sit on the (_e_) Crosse, and drink as much blood of Nobles as of the Commons. Then wo is me, for London shall be destroyed. (_a_) God I hope will prevent this threatened mischief. (_b_) Brammish is a river in Northumberland. (_c_) I conceive it should be Knaresborough, by which the river Nidd runs. (_d_) Storkton I conceive mistaken for Stanemore, in Richmondshire. (_e_) It is to be noted and admired, that this Crosse in the North in Mother Shipton’s days, was a tall stone Crosse which ever since hath been by degrees sinking into the ground, and is now (1640) sunk so low, that a Raven may sit upon the top of it and reach her bill to the ground. Then will come a woman with one eye, and she shall tread in men’s blood to the knee; and she shall meet a man leaning on a staff, and shall say to him, What art thou? and he shall say, I am King of the Scots. And she shall say, Go with me to my house, for there are three Knights. And he will go up with her, and stay there three days and three nights. Then will England be lost; and they will cry twice in one day, England is lost. Then there will be three Knights in Petergate in York, and the one shall not know of the other. There shall be a child born in Pomfret with three thumbs, and these three Knights will give their horses to this (_f_) child with three thumbs to hold, whilst they win England again: then come in Clubs and Clouted shoes, and they with the three Knights win England again: and all Noble blood shall be gone but one, and they shall carry him to Sheriff Hutton’s Castle, six miles from York, and he shall die there; and they shall chuse their Earl in the field, and hang their horses on a thorn, and rue the time that ever they were born to see so much blood shed. (_f_) There was a child not many years since born at Pomfret with three thumbs, and credibly reported.