“Charles had three beautiful children, and was fond of their company. Once, it is said, when he was with them at a window of Hampton Court Palace, a gypsy appeared before him and asked for charity. He and the children laughed at her grotesque appearance, which angered her, when she took from her basket a glass and held it up to the king. He looked into it and saw his head severed from his shoulders.
“The king gave her money.
“‘A dog shall die in this room,’ she said, ‘and then the kingdom which you will lose shall be restored to your family.’
DEATH OF CARDINAL WOLSEY.
“Many years passed; and Oliver Cromwell, attended by his faithful dog, came to Hampton Court Palace and slept in this room. When he awoke in the morning, the dog was dead.
“‘The kingdom has departed from me,’ he said, recalling the gypsy’s prophecy; and so it proved.
“Of course the story of the gypsy’s mirror is untrue, but the legend is a part of the old romance of the palace; and such poetic incidents, though false colored lights, serve to impress the facts of history more vividly on the mind.