Unsafe, because secure, there’s none to show
How England may avert the fatal blow.
He’s dead, whose death the weeping clouds deplore,
I wish we did not owe to him that show’r
Which long expected was, and might have still
Expected been, had not our nation’s ill
Drawn from the heavens a sympathetic tear:
England hath cause a second drought to fear.
We have no second LILLY, who may die,
And by his death may make the heavens cry.
Then let your annals, Coley, want this day,
Think every year leap-year; or if’t must stay,
Cloath it in black; let a sad note stand by,
And stigmatize it to posterity.
Here follows the Copy of an Indictment filed against Mr. Lilly, for which see page 167 of his Life.
The jurors for the Lord Protector of the commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, &c. upon their oaths do present, that William Lilly, late of the Parish of St. Clements Danes, in the County of Middlesex, Gent. not having the fear of God before his eyes, but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the devil, the 10th day of July, in the Year of our Lord, 1654, at the Parish aforesaid, in the County aforesaid, wickedly, unlawfully, and deceitfully, did take upon him, the said William Lilly, by inchantment, charm, and sorcery, to tell and declare to one Anne East, the wife of Alexander East, where ten waistcoats, of the value of five pounds, of the goods and chattels of the said Alexander East, then lately before lost and stolen from the said Alexander East, should be found and become; and two shilling and sixpence in monies numbred, of the monies of the said Alexander, from the said Anne East, then and and there unlawfully and deceitfully, he, the said William Lilly, did take, receive, and had, to tell and declare to her the said Anne, where the said goods, so lost and stolen as aforesaid, should be found and become: And also that he, the said William Lilly, on the said tenth day of July, in the Year of our Lord, 1654, and divers other days and times, as well before as afterwards, at the said Parish aforesaid, in the County aforesaid, unlawfully and deceitfully did take upon him, the said William Lilly, by inchantment, charm, and sorcery, to tell and declare to divers other persons, to the said jurors, yet unknown, where divers goods, chattels, and things of the said persons yet unknown, there lately before lost and stolen from the said persons yet unknown, should be found and become; and divers sums of monies of the said persons yet unknown, then and there unlawfully and deceitfully, he the said William Lilly did take, receive, and had, to tell and declare to the said persons yet unknown, where their goods, chattels, and things, so lost and stolen, as aforesaid, should be found and become, in contempt of the laws of England, to the great damage and deceit of the said Alexander and Anne, and of the said other persons yet unknown, to the evil and pernicious example of all others in the like case offending, against the form of the statute in this case made and provided, and against the publick peace, &c.


