Chapter XXIV: French

Le _Mercurial_ non de trop longue vie,
Six cens & huit & vingt, grand maladie,
Et encor pis danger de feu & d’eau,
Son grand amy lors luy sera contraire,
De tels hazards se pourroit bien distraire,
Mais bref, le ser luy sera son Tombeau.

English.

The _Mercurial_ not too long lived,
Six hundred and eight and twenty, a great sickness,
And what is worse a danger of fire and water,
His great friend then shall be against him,
He might well avoid those dangers,
But a little after, the Iron shall make his Sepulcher.

ANNOT.

This is concerning _Lewis_ the XIII. King of _France_, who fell dangerously sick of the Plague at _Lions_, about the year 1628. after that went with his Army into _Savoy_, where he escaped many dangers of fire and water. As for the Verse it must not be understood, as if he had been killed, but that the cares he took about his Armies should shorten his days. The fourth Verse is to be understood of the Lord _Bellingham_, then favorite to the King, who forsook him in his sickness, for which he was afterwards disgraced, and could never come into favour again.