* Wanley's Wonders, B. 6* C. 8. Was he an ancient or modern?

† Heyvrood's Hierarch. L. iv. p. 224.

Pope Gregory speaks of a monk who-in a dream foresaw his own death, together with that of many other members of him monastery, as likewise that of some sisters of a neigh-touring convent: but. momastemes were the scenes of fiction.

The Bishop of Lombes, who was the intonate friend of Petrarch, pressed him in the meet earnest manner to visit him at Lombes, Petrarch. had promised to go the beginning of-the year following, and had even formed the project of settling entirely near bis amiable friend, when he received the melancholy news that the bishop was dangerously ill at Lombes. This infomation alarmed him exceedingly: he fluctuated. between fear and; hope "One night in my sleep," says Petrarch, "I thought I saw the bishop walking alone, and crossing the stream that watered my garden. I ran to him, and asked him a thousand questions at once. From whence came you? Where are you going so fast? Why are you alone? The bishop replied with a smile, 'Do you recollect the summer you passed with me on the other side, the Garonne? The climate and.the maa~ iters of Gascony displeaaed you, and you found the storms of the Pyaennees insupportable. I now think ,as you did. I am weary. of it myself. I have bid adieu to this barbarous country, and am returning; to Rome.' He had continued to walk on while he spake these words, and was got to the end of the garden, I attempted to join him, and begged that might at least be. permitted the honour of accompanying him, the bishop gently put me, back with his hand, and changing his count-nance and the tone of bis voice, 'No,' said he, ' you must not come with me at present After baring said this he looked atedfastly at me, and then. it was that L saw on his face all the signs of death. The sudden shock of .this sight caused me to cry aloud, and awaked me from my sleep; I marked the day, and related the circumstances to the friends. I had at Parma, and wrote an account of it to my other friends in many different places. Five-and-twenty days after this I received the mournful news that the Bishop of Lombes was dead, and found that he died on the very day that I had seen him in vision in my garden-" "This singular accidentm " says he to John Andre, "gives me no more faith in dreams than Cicero had, who, as well as myself, had a dream confirmed by the event *•"

Henry the third of France is related to have had a dream predictive of his unfortunate fate at St. Cloud, but which does not appear to have been attended with any more use; and Louis of Bourbon, Wince of Condi, who lived in the seventeenth century, is said to have dreamed, that after having gained three su-cessive victories, and defeated his great enemies, he should be mortally wounded, and his dead body laid on theirs; as came to pass, for the Marshal de St. Andre was kilted at Dreux, the Duke of Guise, Francis Lorrain, at Orleans; the constable Montmorency at St. Denys; the triumvirate that had sworn the destruction of the prince and his religion; at last he himself was slain at Bassac.

* Mrs. Dobson 's Life of Petrarch, vol. i. p. 183.

Pere Matthieu tells us that the queen of Henry the Fourth of France waking in the night some little time before the assassination of her husband, in great agitation, the king enquired the cause; she said that she had been dreaming that somebody stabbed him with a knife on the staircase. "Thank God," says the king, "it is only a dream." Henry was so impressed by those and other prognostics which are represented to have foreboded his fate, that he was desirous of postponing the coronation of the queen, and at length consented with reluctance and apprehension to indulge her wishes, and assist at the ceremony; of which an interesting account may be seen in Sully's Memoirs.

Monsieur Cameron relates of Monsieur Calignan, Chancellor of Navarre, that he was warned at Beam three times by a voice which addressed him in sleep, admomishing him to leave the town a few days before the plagwe raged there.

There are many dreams of this description mentioned in the history of our country, some of the principal of which we shall notice.

Holinshed relates that a dream was imparted to Elstric, in which Edmund appeared to fall asleep amidst his courtiers at an entertainment, and which was interpreted by St. Dunstan to have predicted the death of the king *. St. Dunstan himself was favoured with visions upon the same subject.

Alfred, when compelled by the Danges to take refuge in Idlingsay, in the marshes of Somersetshire, fancied, it is stated †, that he saw St. Cuthbert in his sleep, who.encouraged him in his despondency with the promise that he should soon recover his kingdom to the confusion of his enemies, assuring him in testimony of the promise, that some of his fishermen who were employed with their nets, should procure a considerable draught of fish though the river was frozen at the time, both of which events speedily came to pass. The story originated, probably, in some reflections which raised the confidence of Alfred, or was contrived by him, as well as a similar dream attributed to his mother, to enliven his fol-lowers.

* B. v. C. 24.

† Holinshed, B. vi C. 14.

When Hollo fee Dane being defeated by. Alfred had left England, his brother in law was admonished by his mother not to engage in his cause, but persisting he was killed *.

It was easy to invent dreams when a religious sanction was required to political desigus, as when the lineage of the Kings of England was in a maimer extinct, and the question of the succession much agitated, a person named Brightwold, a man of Glastonbury, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, being much employed on this subject, dreamed that he saw St. Peter consecrate and anoint Edward, son of Egelred, then remaining an exile in Normandy, to be King of England; and on demanding of St. Peter who should succeed Edward, he was directed by the apostle to take no thought of these matters, for the kingdom of England was the peculiar care of God*.