penly: 'Now, God be praised! I can see of this fore eye.' And
afterwards declared she did see more and more by it, & could, by
degrees, endure the light of the candle. All which his majestie, in
the presence of the said lords & many others, examined himself, &
found to be true. And it hath since been discovered that, some months
agone, the said young gentlewoman professed that, as soon as she was
come of age sufficient, she would convey over to the king's use all
her land; which to the valew of about L130 _per annum_, her father
deceased had left her sole heyre unto."[171]

Charles II, perhaps the most unworthy of English monarchs, was by far
the busiest healer, and even while in exile in the Netherlands he
retained the power to cure. In one month he touched two hundred and
sixty at Breda, and Lower said: "It was not without success, since it
was the experience that drew thither every day a great number of those
diseased even from the most remote provinces of Germany." An official
register of the persons touched was kept for every month in his reign,
but about two and a half years appear to be wanting. The smallest
number he touched in one year was 2,983; that was in 1669. In 1682 he
touched 8,500 persons. In 1684 the throng was such that six or seven
of the sick were trampled to death. The total number touched in his
reign was 92,107.[172] It is instructive to note, however, that while
in no other reign were so many people touched for scrofula and so many
cures vouched for, in no other reign did so many people die of that
disease.[173]

John Browne, surgeon in ordinary to his majesty and to St. Thomas's
Hospital, and author of many learned works on surgery and anatomy,
published accounts of sixty cures due to this monarch. He says a
surgeon attested the reality of the disease before the miracle was
performed, to exclude impostors who were seeking the gold, for, in
addition to the regular formula, the king hung about the neck of the
person touched a ribbon to which was attached a gold coin.
Notwithstanding these stringent measures, some were able to impose on
the king, for the coins were often found in the shops, having been
sold by the recipients. Says Brand: "Barrington tells us of an old man
who was a witness in a cause, and averred that when Queen Anne was at
Oxford, she touched him whilst a child for the evil. Barrington, when
he had finished his evidence, 'asked him whether he was really cured?
upon which he ans