He also bore
authority to make and deliver to King Charles a bill of exchange on
Backwell, the goldsmith, for the purchase money of Dunkirk. Thus all
would be ready for immediate conclusion the moment King Charles accepted
the French king's offer.

That night near the hour of one o'clock, Lilly called by appointment to
see me at De Grammont's house, coming from Whitehall, where he had been
closeted with the king for three or four hours, explaining to his Majesty
the message of the stars as read by the light of two thousand pounds.

"I explained to his Majesty," said Lilly, "that in all my calculations
and observations, Mars intruded with alarming persistency in conjunction
with King Louis's star. I tried to show him that the recurrences of this
untoward conjunction were so rapid and constant as to denote war at a
very early date if conditions were not affected at once by the
intervention of the messenger, Mercury, whose sign fortunately
accompanied each unfortuitous conjunction. The king, though pretending
to be learned in the noble art of astrology, asked me to translate my
solution, and I did so, almost in the words of Monsieur l'Abbe this
afternoon."

"Thank you," remarked George.

"No, no, do not thank me," said Lilly, disclaiming all credit. "What
Monsieur said was so reasonable and fitted so aptly to the probable
conditions of the future, read in the terrestrial light of the present,
sound reason, that it was hardly necessary to ask the stars. But in
compliance with the king's request, I set my figure and found, as usual,
that the revelations of the stars coincided with the dictates of reason.
It is true the stars sometimes forecast events which seem almost
impossible in view of present conditions, but the questioner of the
heavens who does not use his reason to help his interpretation of the
stars is, to say the least, far from wise."

"Yes," interrupted the Abbe. "But come to the point! What did the king
say?"

"He did not entirely accept the message of the stars," returned Lilly.
"He does not seem to object to war. He says there is no time when it is
as easy to raise money from the people as in times of war. I suggested
that money in the nation's treasury was not in the privy purse, where the
king most wants it. But he said it was only a short journey from the
treasury to the privy purse, and--well, I agreed with him. If you want to
convert a vain, stubborn fool to your way of thinking, don't let him kn