"Sr. According to your desire and my promise I have written down whatI remember (divers things being slipt out of my memory) of therelation made me by Mr. Nicholas Towse concerning the Aparition wchvisited him. About ye yeare 1627, {122} I and my wife upon anoccasion being in London lay att my Brother Pyne's house withoutBishopsgate, wch. was ye next house unto Mr. Nicholas Towse's, who wasmy Kinsman and familiar acquaintance, in consideration of whoseSociety and friendship he tooke a house in that place, ye said Towsebeing a very fine Musician and very good company, and for ought I eversaw or heard, a Vurtuous, religious and wel disposed Gentleman. Aboutthat time ye said Mr. Towse tould me that one night, being in Bed andperfectly waking, and a Candle burning by him (as he usually had)there came into his Chamber and stood by his bed side an OldeGentleman in such an habitt as was in fashion in Q: Elizebeth's tyme,at whose first appearance Mr. Towse was very much troubled, but aftera little tyme, recollecting himselfe, he demanded of him in ye Name ofGod what he was, whether he were a Man. And ye Aparition replyed No.Then he asked him if he were a Divell. And ye answer was No. ThenMr. Towse said 'in ye Name of God, what art thou then?' And as Iremember Mr. Towse told me that ye Apparition answered him that he wasye Ghost of Sir George Villiers, Father to ye then Duke of Buckingham,whom he might very well remember, synce he went to schoole at such aplace in Leicestershire (naming ye place which I have forgotten). AndMr. Towse tould me that ye Apparition had perfectly ye resemblance ofye said Sr George Villiers in all respects and in ye same habitt thathe had often seene him weare in his lifetime."The said Apparition then tould Mr. Towse that he could not butremember ye much kindness that he, ye said Sr George Villiers, hadexpressed to him whilst he was a Schollar in Leicestershire, asaforesaid, and that as out of that consideration he believed that heloved him and that therefore he made choyce of him, ye sayde Mr.Towse, to deliver a message to his sonne, ye Duke of Buckingham;thereby to prevent such mischiefe as would otherwise befall ye saidDuke whereby he would be inevitably ruined. And then (as I remember)Mr. Towse tould me that ye Apparition instructed him what message heshould deliver unto ye Duke. Vnto wch. Mr. Towse replyed that heshould be very unwilling to goe to ye Duke of Buckingham upon such anerrand, whereby he should gaine nothing but reproach and contempt, andto be esteemed a Madman, and therefore desired to be exscused from yeemployment, but ye Apparition pressd him wth. much earnestness toundertake it, telling him that ye Circumstances and secret Discoverieswhich he should be able to make to ye Duke of such passages in yecourse of his life which were known to none but himselfe, would makeit appeare that ye message was not ye fancy of a Distempered Brayne,but a reality, and so ye Apparition tooke his leave of him for thatnight and telling him that he would give him leave to consider tillthe next night, and then he would come to receave his answer wheatherhe would undertake to deliver his message or no."Mr. Towse past that day wth. much trouble and perplexity, debatingand reasoning wth. himselfe wether he should deliver his message ornot to ye Duke but, in ye conclusion, he resolved to doe it, and yenext night when ye Apparition came he gave his answer accordingly, andthen receaved his full instruction. After which Mr. Towse went andfounde out Sr. Thomas Bludder and Sr. Ralph Freeman, by whom he wasbrought to ye Duke of Buckingham, and had sevarall private and loneaudiences of him, I my selfe, by ye favoure of a freinde (Sr. EdwardSavage) was once admitted to see him in private conference with yeDuke, where (although I heard not there discourses) I observed muchearnestnessse in their actions and gestures. After wch. conferenceMr. Towse tould me that ye Duke would not follow ye advice that wasgiven him, which was (as I remember) that he intimated ye casting of,and ye rejecting of some Men who had great interest in him, which was,and as I take it he named, Bp. Laud and that ye Duke was to doe somepopular Acts in ye ensuing Parliament, of which Parliament ye Dukewould have had Mr. Towse to have been a Burgesse, but he refused it,alleadging that unlesse ye Duke followed his directions, he must doehim hurt if he were of ye Parliament. Mr. Towse then toalde that yeDuke of Buckingham confessed that he had toalde him those things wch.no Creature knew but himself, and that none but God or ye Divell couldreveale to him. Ye Duke offered Mr. Towse to have ye King knight him,and to have given him preferment (as he tould me), but that he refusedit, saying that vnless he would follow his advice he would receavenothing from him."Mr. Towse, when he made me this relation, he tolde me that ye Dukewould inevitably be destroyed before such a time (wch. he then named)and accordingly ye Duke's death happened before that time. Helikewise tolde that he had written downe all ye severall discoursesthat he had had wth. ye Apparition, and that at last his coming was sofamiliar that he was as litle troubled with it as if it had beene afriende or acquayntance that had come to visitt him. Mr. Towse toldme further that ye Archbishop of Canterbury, then Bishop of London,Dr. Laud, should by his Councells be ye authoure of very greattroubles to ye Kingdome, by which it should be reduced to ye extremityof disorder and confusion, and that it should seeme to be past allhope of recovery without a miracle, but when all people were indispayre of seeing happy days agayne, ye Kingdome should suddenly bereduced and resettled agayne in a most happy condition."At this tyme my father Pyne was in trouble and comitted to yeGatehouse by ye Lords of ye Councell about a Quarrel betweene him andye Lord Powlett, upon which one night I saide to my Cosin Towse, byway of jest, 'I pray aske your Appairition what shall become of myfather Pyne's business,' which he promised to doe, and ye next day hetolde me that my father Pyne's enemyes were ashamed of their maliciousprosecution, and that he would be at liberty within a week or some fewdays, which happened according."Mr. Towse, his wife, since his death tolde me that her husband andshe living at Windsor Castle, where he had an office that Sumer thatye Duke of Buckingham was killed, tolde her that very day that theDuke was sett upon by ye mutinous Mariners att Portesmouth, sayingthen that ye next attempt agaynst him would be his Death, whichaccordingly happened. And att ye instant ye Duke was killed (as shevnderstood by ye relation afterwards) Mr. Towse was sitting in hischayre, out of which he suddenly started vp and sayd, 'Wyfe, ye Dukeof Buckingham is slayne!'"Mr. Towse lived not long after that himselfe, but tolde his wife yetyme of his Death before itt happened. I never saw him after I hadseen some effects of his discourse, which before I valued not, andtherefore was not curious to enquire after more than he voluntarylytolde me, which I then entertayned not wth. these serious thoughtswhich I have synce reflected on in his discourse. This is as much asI can remember on this business which, according to youre desire, iswritten by"Sr. Yor., &c.,
