YOU cannot be insensible , that an Opportunity of Imparting any manner of News from these parts , is much rather desirable than possible , and consequently that these few lines are as much as you could in any reason expect from me at this time , I having notice of Mr. B — s intended escape scarce a quarter of an hour before I set Pen to paper : The greatest Discourse about Town here , ariseth from the various Conjectures of the Reasons of King James's Melancholly , which for these three Weeks or more , hath been extreamly taken notice of at Kilkenny , and is now generally whisper'd thorough this City . Those who pretend to any insight into the posture of Affairs here , or that are vers'd in any of the Politicks of this Piece-meal Government , apprehend and privately give out , that it proceeds from a Pacquet the late King received from France about the 24th of January last , in which it is believ'd the French King hath proved himself defective , either in his Will or his Power , to send such seasonable Supplyes as may enable the late King to take the Field early enough , and which his Party here boasted long before would without doubt have been sufficient to have beat Duke Schomberg and his handfull of Raw men ( as they call them ) back to England . Others date his Discontents from the late Review he took of some of his Regiments , which are very ill clad , worse arm'd , and not in any tolerable manner disciplin'd : so that it is thought he began to Despond , when he saw on how weak Pillars the bulky Fate of his three Kingdoms lean'd , and how basely he had been by his Priests and Mungril Officers deluded into a Belief of a much more pertinent and considerable strength .

But in short , those who are nearest about him , one of which I have the fortune to converse with , do solemnly averr , That his grief and Melancholly did sensibly begin and proceed from Two strange and indeed ominous Dreams , which he had that very night in which by a Renegado from the English Quarters , he receiv'd the News of K. William's determinate Resolution to come over and head his own Army here this Spring . And because the Dreams of Great Persons , whose daily thoughts ( from whence these roving Phantomes by Night take their rise ) are employ'd in mighty Affairs , have been both by Sacred and prophane Pens thought worthy to be transmitted to Posterity ; I will here in brief set them down , and subjoyn also the Descants and Interpretations that are here made upon them .

The late King was at Kilkenny , at Supper , when he receiv'd the aforesaid News , which so dissatisfy'd him , that he abruptly rose and withdrew into his Bed-chamber , whither he call'd a Council , and after three or four hours serious debate , he went to Bed , and dream'd , That a Capuchine Fryar ( being one that he had been intimate with in France , and who had help'd to convert him to the Romish Religion , ) met him alone in a fair Walk belonging to the Castle of Kilkenny , with his Royal Robes on , and a Scepter in his hand , which the Fryar ( coming up hastily in his proper Habit ) rudely laid hold of , broke in several pieces , and threw away , and at the same time catching at his Robe , and disengaging it readily from the Kings shoulders , he forthwith threw his own Habit and Cowle upon the King , and drove him to an old ruinated Abbey or Monastery , which stands at some distance from the Castle , telling him that God had allotted that place for his Habitation , and that till he betook himself thereto , he should never have rest : And so left him .

His Second Dream was : That having his Army drawn up in some large Plain , in Battel-Array , he saw King William at the Head of his Army , advancing with a vigorous Grace to engage him , when of a sudden his own Leading Staff fell out of his Hand , and while he was pointing to some near him to take it up , his whole Army was of a sudden vanish 'd from behind him , and himself enclos'd in the middle of the Enemy , from whom yet he escapes . These were his two Dreams , and which have render'd him very thoughtfull and Melancholly ever since : As for the Interpretation , those that dare express their thoughts , thus render them .

For the first , though it were first in time , yet they conclude it last in order , and indeed they explain it as the natural consequence of the latter ; as to the particulars they speak thus : viz. That the dropping of his Leading-staff , either denotes his fear of heading his Army himself , or that the Government of his Army and Kingdom , will be dispos'd of , and committed to some Forreign ( which they suppose French ) trust , and that the pains he takes will notwithstanding be little for his own Advantage or Honour : And for his Army , seeming to vanish our of his sight , it seems to foretell and presage either some cowardly base flight of his Men , or an universal Revolt from him . Then comes the Capuchin tearing off his Royal Robes , and breaking his Scepter ; which evidently seem to foretell the having inevitably lost all hopes of Recovering his Kingdoms , he is obliged for the better security of himself , to retire into some Monastery , there to spend the residue of his unhappy Life in a penitent Sorrow for his manifest and grievous Sins against God , against his Countrey , and against the better part of Christendome , in being ( as it is justly imputed to him ) one of the chief Causes that so much Innocent Blood of good Christians has been spilt in his own and in Forreign Countreys and Kingdoms .