416 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 



off. And even in nature, the sight of his mind was 

 like some sights of eyes ; rather strong at hand, 

 than to carry afar off. For his wit increased upon 

 the occasion : and so much the more, if the oc 

 casion were sharpened by danger. Again, whether 

 it were the shortness of his foresight, or the 

 strength of his will, or the dazzling of his sus 

 picions, or what it was, certain it is, that the 

 perpetual troubles of his fortunes, there being no 

 more matter out of which they grew, could not 

 have been without some great defects and main 

 errors in his nature, customs, and proceedings, which 

 he had enough to do to save and help with a thou 

 sand little industries and watches. But those do 

 best appear in the story itself. Yet take him with 

 all his defects, if a man should compare him with the 

 kings his concurrents in France and Spain, he shall 

 find him more politic than Lewis the Twelfth of 

 France, and more entire and sincere than Ferdinando 

 of Spain. But if you shall change Lewis the 

 Twelfth for Lewis the Eleventh, who lived a little 

 before, then the consort is more perfect. For that 

 Lewis the Eleventh, Ferdinando, and Henry, may 

 be esteemed for the &quot; tres magi&quot; of kings of those 

 ages. To conclude, if this king did no greater 

 matters, it was long of himself : for what he minded 

 he compassed. 



He was a comely personage, a little above just 

 stature, well and straight limbed, but slender. His 

 countenance was reverend, and a little like a church 

 man : and as it was not strange or dark, so neither 



