In his second century, prediction 66, he says:

"From great dangers the captive is escaped.
A little time, great fortune changed.
In the palace the people are caught.
By good augury the city is besieged."

"What is this," a believer might exclaim, "but the escape of
Napoleon from Elba--his changed fortune, and the occupation
of Paris by the allied armies?"

Let us try again. In his third century, prediction 98, he
says:

"Two royal brothers will make fierce war on each other;
So mortal shall be the strife between them,
That each one shall occupy a fort against the other;
For their reign and life shall be the quarrel."

Some Lillius Redivivus would find no difficulty in this
prediction. To use a vulgar phrase, it is as clear as a
pikestaff. Had not the astrologer in view Don Miguel and Don
Pedro when he penned this stanza, so much less obscure and
oracular than the rest?

He is to this day extremely popular in France and the Walloon country of
Belgium, where old farmer-wives consult him with great confidence and
assiduity.

Catherine di Medicis was not the only member of her illustrious house who
entertained astrologers. At the beginning of the fifteenth century there
was a man, named Basil, residing in Florence, who was noted over all Italy
for his skill in piercing the darkness of futurity. It is said that he
foretold to Cosmo di Medicis, then a private citizen, that he would attain
high dignity, inasmuch as the ascendant of his nativity was adorned with
the same propitious aspects as those of Augustus Caesar and the Emperor
Charles V.[59] Another astrologer foretold the death of Prince Alexander
di Medicis; and so very minute and particular was he in all the
circumstances, that he was suspected of being chiefly instrumental in
fulfilling his own prophecy--a very common resource with these fellows to
keep up their credit. He foretold confidently that the prince should die
by the hand of his own familiar friend, a person of a slender habit of
body, a small face, a swarthy complexion, and of most remarkable
taciturnity. So it afterwards happened, Alexander having been murdered in
his chamber by his cousin Lorenzo, who corresponded exactly with the above
description.[60] The author of _Hermippus Redivivus_, in relating this