This was not Lilly’s only appearance before Parliament; sixteen years later we shall find him there again; but of that at its time; and we will look first at some of his doings in the interim.  With another general our astrologer had a meeting too, but with him—­General Fairfax—­there was talk, not so full of meaning to me as the silence of Cromwell.  ‘There being,’ says Lilly, ’in those times, some smart difference between the army and Parliament, the headquarters of the army were at Windsor, whither I was carried with a coach and four horses, and John Boker (an astrologer) with me.  We were welcomed thither, and feasted in a garden where General Fairfax lodged.  We were brought to the general, who bid us kindly welcome to Windsor.’  Lilly tells what Fairfax said, and what he himself said in reply; but if these speeches were all that was there said and done, the coach and four, and the time spent, seem to me wasteful.  The speeches ended, ’we departed, and went to visit Mr. Peters (Hugh Peters), the minister, who lodged in the castle; whom we found reading an idle pamphlet come from London that morning.’  He said—­what gives proof, if proof be needed, that there was idle talk current in that time, as indeed there is in all times.

Our astrologer, professing a high art, standing above the common level, did not give ‘up to party what was meant for mankind.’  The stars look down, from their high places, on sublunary things, with a sublime indifference; and he, their interpreter, was at the service of all comers, or of all who could pay.  Many came to him; among others came ‘Madam Whorwood,’ from King Charles, who intended to escape from Hampton Court, where he was held prisoner by the army.  She came to inquire ’in what quarter of this nation he (the king) might be most safe?’ Lilly, after ‘erection of his figure,’ said, ’about twenty miles from London, and in Essex,’ ‘he might continue undisturbed;’ but the poor king, misguided by himself, or others, ’went away in the night time westward, and surrendered to Hammond in the Isle of Wight.  Twice again, according to Lilly, Madam Whorwood came to him, asking advice and assistance for the king.  This Madam Whorwood I have not met with elsewhere in my reading, and the name may be a fictitious one; but that King Charles, in his straits, sought aid of William Lilly, who by repute could read the stars, is not improbable.  In 1648, Lilly gave to the council of state ‘some intelligence out of France,’ which he got by means not astrological, or in any way supernatural; and the council thereupon gave him ’in money fifty pounds, and a pension of one hundred pounds per annum,’ which he received for two years, ‘but no more.’