Here ended the fortune-telling. And now, a dance of clowns, “Cockrel, Clod, Town’head, and Puffy,” each personated by knights, delighted the company with a colloquy in prose, and in their hands the conduct of the piece remained until the Gipsies, metamorphosed, “appeared in rich habits, to close the whole with a eulogy upon King James.” A song was introduced just before the conclusion:— Oh, that we understood Our good! There’s happiness indeed in blood, And store— But how much more When virtue’s flood In the same stream doth hit! As that grows high with years, so happiness With it! Thus ended this masque, which furnishes, in the estimation of a great critic, “specimens of poetic excellence, injurious flattery, and adroit satire.” James was delighted with his cheer at Burleigh.[315] Before departing for Belvoir, he noticed, with much satisfaction, that there was a prospect of there soon being an heir to the house of Villiers; and, after uttering a fervent wish that all might prosper, he called upon the Bishop of London, by way of amen, to give the young couple a blessing in his presence on the interesting expectation.[316] Footnote 315: Gifford. Footnote 316: Nichols, vol. iv., p. 710. This gay scene was followed by some mischances. James, riding out after dinner, from Theobalds, early in the next year,[317] was thrown into the New River;[318] the ice broke, and he fell in, nothing appearing above the water except his boots. Buckingham, who was not with him, was sent for from Hertfordshire, and posted away to attend his royal master. The King recovered from this accident, but his infirmities increased daily; he was confined for some time at Theobalds, “by reason of a defluxion,” which, setting in his leg, assumed the form of gout; and he was obliged to be carried out in a litter when he went to see the deer. Footnote 317: 1622. Footnote 318: Or, as it was called, Middleton’s Water, from the great contriver of that inestimable improvement, the introduction of water into the metropolis, Sir Hugh Middleton.