he most courteously signed, adding withal, that if they proceeded
further in sequestring Mr. Pennington, he would command a Serjeant at
Arms to bring them up to answer their contempts: I immediately posted
that letter to my friend, which when the absurd fellows received, they
delivered him possession of his goods again; and, for my pains, when he
came to London, gave me one hundred pounds; he died in 1652, of a
violent fever. I did carefully, in 1642 and 1643, take notice of every
grand action which happened betwixt King and Parliament, and did first
then incline to believe, that as all sublunary affairs did depend upon
superior causes, so there was a possibility of discovering them by the
configurations of the superior bodies; in which way making some essays
in those two years, I found encouragement to proceed further, which I
did; I perused the writings of the ancients, but therein they were
silent, or gave no satisfaction; at last, I framed unto myself that
method, which then and since I follow, which, I hope, in time may be
more perfected by a more penetrating person than myself.

In 1643, I became familiarly known to Sir Bulstrode Whitlocke, a member
of the House of Commons; he being sick, his urine was brought unto me by
Mrs. Lisle,[11] wife to John Lisle, afterwards one of the keepers of the
Great Seal; having set my figure, I returned answer, the sick for that
time would recover, but by means of a surfeit would dangerously relapse
within one month; which he did, by eating of trouts at Mr. Sand's house,
near Leatherhead in Surrey. Then I went daily to visit him, Dr. Prideau
despairing of his life; but I said there was no danger thereof, and that
he would be sufficiently well in five or six weeks; and so he was.

[Footnote 11: She was afterwards beheaded at Winchester, for
harbouring one Nelthrop, a rebel in the Duke of Monmouth's army
1685. She had made herself remarkable, by saying at the