HOw! the Lyons dead! 'Tis impossible—Why are Lyons Immortal?— Not as they are Lyons, but as they are Tower-Lyons they are. Why you don't hear of a Tower-Lyon that dies in an Age. Tower-Lyons! 'Tis as much the Keepers Interest to be careful and tender of them, as it is a younger Bro­thers to prolong the Life of an old Wife with a Joynture. Tower-Lyons! You don't know what Tower-Lyons are. They are the Darlings, the delight of the People, and now they are gon, my Life for Yours we shall hear of the Death of some Body at one time or other. Now for as many Guineys for a Purchase, as there have been Sur­mises, and Conjectures, and I pray God grants passionately whispered forth upon this fatal Accident. The Superstitious Papist sneers up his Nose, and cries it por­tends well o' their side, for cutting off the Lord Stafford's Head. Why what has the Lord Stafford's Head to do with the Lyons? Oh yes—For he carried a Lyons Heart to the Scaffold with him, and therefore they have to do with his Head. 'Twas well they did not deal by his Lordship as the Persians did by Daniel; for had these Lyons been his Executioners, their unexpected Deaths had been the effect of the Popes Curses upon Heretick's. But now it must be a Judgment among Us. And truly 'twas a hard case that such a Judgment should fall upon one that perhaps never deserv'd it. For 'tis a Hundred to One whither the Keeeper had any Hand in the Lord Stafford's Execution or no; and yet because he was Executed how many Pence and Two-pences must the Keeper loose? So that now there is no entertainment left for the Countrey Maidens that come to Town a purpose, now the Lyons are dead, but only the Tombs themselves. And yet no such Calamitie neither; the place being easily supply'd from the Bear-Garden; for one living Dog is better then three dead Lyons.

But that's not the business: Here are three Tower-Lyon's dead, and therefore three great Sombody's must follow 'em. As if because Living-Lyons have their Jackals, therefore dead Lyons must be the Jackals of Death themselves to run be­fore the Hearses of great Personages. The stars protect the famous Albion and Corineus, those Noble Guardians of the Hustings and Sheriffs Courts in Guild-Hall.

But a Lyon is the King of Beasts, and 'twas never known that they ever dy'd but upon some Emergent occasion; and therefore before the three Kings of Cullen died, there were three Lyons died just in this sullen froward, frompish manner. Hang 'em Weezels of Ill-omens, had they fall'n by the hand of Sampson, David, or Hercules, they had dy'd in the Bed of Honour, but to sneak out of the World with a Surfet of raw Carrion in their Guts, and forget to drink Brandy too! the com­mon Physick of the Times! was a death no way becoming three Lyon's that in­tended to foretel the death of Princes.

But to die all three together; to die as it were by consent, there must be some­thing more then Ordinary in the business. Either it was a Sham-plot of Mrs. Cel­liers Presbyterians to create fears and jealousies in the Nation; or else it was a Plot among themselves to make the World believe strange things. Well, fare 'em well they dy'd like Lyons however.

Thus you see what 'tis to be a Tower-Lyon; I'le warrant ye all the Lyons and Lyonesses in the Deserts of Lybia, might have dy'd of a Lyon Pestilence, and not one word have been made of it. Here are only three Lyons die in the Tower, nay, 'tis but within the Precinct of the Tower neither, and presently they set three Presses a going in the Metropoils of the Nation.

Some People reported that the great Guns were carry'd into the Tower, because three of its chief Guardians were deceased. But we believe no such thing: and therefore let 'em e'en go like Emblems of the Wicked as they are,

Others there are who say, That a certain Parson should report at a Coffee-house that these Lyons were poyson'd. Truly 'twas pitty, that he had not been enjoyn'd for his pains to preach their Funeral Sermon. We could have furnished him with matter and told him how that Lyons were sacred to Vulcan; by reason of the heat and fury of their courage, how they were honour'd to draw the Chariot of the Mother of the god's, to shew that the fierceness and intemperancy of Youth is to be mollified and govern'd by the Discretion of Age, and as for their lives and conversations the Keeper could have given him an accompt, ever since he began to exercise their patience with his long Pole. We could have told him of the cur­tesie of the Lyon that licked off the sweat from the Forhead of Sandracottus as he lay asleep; and of the Gratitude of the Lyon to Androdus, for having formerly pull'd a Thorn out of his foot. These had been rare Theames, for a young Pulpit Rhetori­cian.

But must these Lyons then die forgot, among the common Croud of Vulgar Lyons? These Lyons that had been so long in England that they might have claim'd Naturalization; these Lyons that were wont to be more visited then a Cardinal Padron, or a Popes Nephew? Truly 'tis great pitty they should. And if they do, 'tis only the fault of our Astrologers. It were an easie thing for them, and would cost 'em nothing neither, to remove the Nemean Lyon (hang him what should a Heathen Lyon do there, now the Zodiac has chang'd its Religion?) and place these three Lyons in his room. Questionless the Zodiac is broad enough to hold 'em all three. And who knows how propitious an English Constellation may be to the Kingdom? And then for the difficulty of their mounting the Sky, to per­fect their design, they need never fear it; for the Vertuosi will lend e'm an Engine to fly, and a Crane with Ropes ready fixed.

And thus much for the three deceased Lyons, and for them that think more Superstitiously then thus of their Omens and their Portendings, they would do well to go to the Bagnio, and sweat out their folly.