Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions - Chapter 16-Notes

      Chapter 16 - Relics

A fouth o' auld knick-knackets,
Rusty airn caps and jinglin' jackets,
Wad haud the Lothians three, in tackets,

A towmond guid;
An' parritch pats, and auld saut backets,

Afore the flood.
BURNS.

The love for relics is one which will never be eradicated as long
as feeling and affection are denizens of the heart. It is a love
which is most easily excited in the best and kindliest natures,
and which few are callous enough to scoff at. Who would not
treasure the lock of hair that once adorned the brow of the
faithful wife, now cold in death, or that hung down the neck of a
beloved infant, now sleeping under the sward? Not one. They are
home-relics, whose sacred worth is intelligible to all; spoils
rescued from the devouring grave, which, to the affectionate, are
beyond all price. How dear to a forlorn survivor the book over
whose pages he has pored with one departed! How much greater its
value, if that hand, now cold, had written a thought, an opinion,
or a name, upon the leaf! Besides these sweet, domestic relics,
there are others, which no one can condemn; relics sanctified by
that admiration of greatness and goodness which is akin to love;
such as the copy of Montaigne's Florio, with the name of
Shakspeare upon the leaf, written by the poet of all time himself;
the chair preserved at Antwerp, in which Rubens sat when he
painted the immortal "Descent from the Cross;" or the telescope,
preserved in the Museum of Florence, which aided Galileo in his
sublime discoveries. Who would not look with veneration upon the
undoubted arrow of William Tell—the swords of Wallace or of
Hampden—or the Bible whose leaves were turned by some stern old
father of the faith?

Thus the principle of reliquism is hallowed and enshrined by love.
But from this germ of purity how numerous the progeny of errors
and superstitions! Men, in their admiration of the great, and of
all that appertained to them, have forgotten that goodness is a
component part of true greatness, and have made fools of
themselves for the jaw-bone of a saint, the toe-nail of an
apostle, the handkerchief a king blew his nose in, or the rope
that hanged a criminal. Desiring to rescue some slight token from
the graves of their predecessors, they have confounded the famous
and the infamous, the renowned and the notorious. Great saints,
great sinners; great philosophers, great quacks; great conquerors,
great murderers; great ministers, great thieves; each and all have
had their admirers, ready to ransack earth, from the equator to
either pole, to find a relic of them.

The reliquism of modern times dates its origin from the centuries
immediately preceding the Crusades. The first pilgrims to the Holy
Land brought back to Europe thousands of apocryphal relics, in the
purchase of which they had expended all their store. The greatest
favourite was the wood of the true cross, which, like the oil of
the widow, never diminished. It is generally asserted, in the
traditions of the Romish Church, that the Empress Helen, the
mother of Constantine the Great, first discovered the veritable
"true cross" in her pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The Emperor
Theodosius made a present of the greater part of it to St.
Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, by whom it was studded with precious
stones, and deposited in the principal church of that city. It was
carried away by the Huns, by whom it was burnt, after they had
extracted the valuable jewels it contained. Fragments, purporting
to have been cut from it were, in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries, to be found in almost every church in Europe, and
would, if collected together in one place, have been almost
sufficient to have built a cathedral. Happy was the sinner who
could get a sight of one of them; happier he who possessed one! To
obtain them the greatest dangers were cheerfully braved. They were
thought to preserve from all evils, and to cure the most
inveterate diseases. Annual pilgrimages were made to the shrines
that contained them, and considerable revenues collected from the
devotees.

Next in renown were those precious relics, the tears of the
Saviour. By whom and in what manner they were preserved, the
pilgrims did not often inquire. Their genuineness was vouched by
the Christians of the Holy Land, and that was sufficient. Tears of
the Virgin Mary, and tears of St. Peter, were also to be had,
carefully enclosed in little caskets, which the pious might wear
in their bosoms. After the tears the next most precious relics
were drops of the blood of Jesus and the martyrs. Hair and
toe-nails were also in great repute, and were sold at extravagant
prices. Thousands of pilgrims annually visited Palestine in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries, to purchase pretended relics for
the home market. The majority of them had no other means of
subsistence than the profits thus obtained. Many a nail, cut from
the filthy foot of some unscrupulous ecclesiastic, was sold at a
diamond's price, within six months after its severance from its
parent toe, upon the supposition that it had once belonged to a
saint. Peter’s toes were uncommonly prolific, for there were nails
enough in Europe, at the time of the Council of Clermont, to have
filled a sack, all of which were devoutly believed to have grown
on the sacred feet of that great apostle. Some of them are still
shown in the cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle. The pious come from a
distance of a hundred German miles to feast their eyes upon them.

At Port Royal, in Paris, is kept with great care a thorn, which
the priests of that seminary assert to be one of the identical
thorns that bound the holy head of the Son of God. How it came
there, and by whom it was preserved, has never been explained.
This is the famous thorn, celebrated in the long dissensions of
the Jansenists and the Molenists, and which worked the miraculous
cure upon Mademoiselle Perrier: by merely kissing it, she was
cured of a disease of the eyes of long standing.134*

What traveller is unacquainted with the Santa Scala, or Holy
Stairs, at Rome? They were brought from Jerusalem along with the
true cross, by the Empress Helen, and were taken from the house
which, according to popular tradition, was inhabited by Pontius
Pilate. They are said to be the steps which Jesus ascended and
descended when brought into the presence of the Roman governor.
They are held in the greatest veneration at Rome: it is
sacrilegious to walk upon them. The knees of the faithful must
alone touch them in ascending or descending, and that only after
they have reverentially kissed them.

Europe still swarms with these religious relics. There is hardly a
Roman Catholic church in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, or
Belgium, without one or more of them. Even the poorly endowed
churches of the villages boast the possession of miraculous
thigh-bones of the innumerable saints of the Romish calendar.
Aix-la-Chapelle is proud of the veritable châsse, or thigh-bone of
Charlemagne, which cures lameness. Halle has a thighbone of the
Virgin Mary; Spain has seven or eight, all said to be undoubted
relics. Brussels at one time preserved, and perhaps does now, the
teeth of St. Gudule. The faithful, who suffered from the
tooth-ache, had only to pray, look at them, and be cured. Some of
these holy bones have been buried in different parts of the
Continent. After a certain lapse of time, water is said to ooze
from them, which soon forms a spring, and cures all the diseases
of the faithful.

It is curious to remark the avidity manifested in all ages, and in
all countries, to obtain possession of some relic of any persons
who have been much spoken of, even for their crimes. When William
Longbeard, leader of the populace of London, in the reign of
Richard I, was hanged at Smithfield, the utmost eagerness was
shown to obtain a hair from his head, or a shred from his
garments. Women came from Essex, Kent, Suffolk, Sussex, and all
the surrounding counties, to collect the mould at the foot of his
gallows. A hair of his beard was believed to preserve from evil
spirits, and a piece of his clothes from aches and pains.

In more modern days, a similar avidity was shown to obtain a relic
of the luckless Masaniello, the fisherman of Naples. After he had
been raised by mob favour to a height of power more despotic than
monarch ever wielded, he was shot by the same populace in the
streets, as if he had been a mad dog. His headless trunk was
dragged through the mire for several hours, and cast at night-fall
into the city ditch. On the morrow the tide of popular feeling
turned once more in his favour. His corpse was sought, arrayed in
royal robes, and buried magnificently by torch-light in the
cathedral, ten thousand armed men, and as many mourners, attending
at the ceremony. The fisherman's dress which he had worn was rent
into shreds by the crowd, to be preserved as relics; the door of
his hut was pulled off its hinges by a mob of women, and eagerly
cut up into small pieces, to be made into images, caskets, and
other mementos. The scanty furniture of his poor abode became of
more value than the adornments of a palace; the ground he had
walked upon was considered sacred, and, being collected in small
phials, was sold at its weight in gold, and worn in the bosom as
an amulet.

Almost as extraordinary was the frenzy manifested by the populace
of Paris on the execution of the atrocious Marchioness de
Brinvilliers. There were grounds for the popular wonder in the
case of Masaniello, who was unstained with personal crimes. But
the career of Madame de Brinvilliers was of a nature to excite no
other feelings than disgust and abhorrence. She was convicted of
poisoning several persons, and sentenced to be burned in the Place
de Grève, and to have her ashes scattered to the winds. On the day
of her execution, the populace, struck by her gracefulness and
beauty, inveighed against the severity of her sentence. Their pity
soon increased to admiration, and, ere evening, she was considered
a saint. Her ashes were industriously collected, even the charred
wood, which had aided to consume her, was eagerly purchased by the
populace. Her ashes were thought to preserve from witchcraft.

In England many persons have a singular love for the relics of
thieves and murderers, or other great criminals. The ropes with
which they have been hanged are very often bought by collectors at
a guinea per foot. Great sums were paid for the rope which hanged
Dr. Dodd, and for those more recently which did justice upon Mr.
Fauntleroy for forgery, and on Thurtell for the murder of Mr.
Weare. The murder of Maria Marten, by Corder, in the year 1828,
excited the greatest interest all over the country. People came
from Wales and Scotland, and even from Ireland, to visit the barn
where the body of the murdered woman was buried. Every one of them
was anxious to carry away some memorial of his visit. Pieces of
the barn-door, tiles from the roof, and, above all, the clothes of
the poor victim, were eagerly sought after. A lock of her hair was
sold for two guineas, and the purchaser thought himself fortunate
in getting it so cheaply.

So great was the concourse of people to visit the house in
Camberwell Lane, where Greenacre murdered Hannah Brown, in 1837,
that it was found necessary to station a strong detachment of
police on the spot. The crowd was so eager to obtain a relic of
the house of this atrocious criminal, that the police were obliged
to employ force to prevent the tables and chairs, and even the
doors, from being carried away.

In earlier times, a singular superstition was attached to the hand
of a criminal who had suffered execution. It was thought that by
merely rubbing the dead hand on the body, the patient afflicted
with the king's evil would be instantly cured. The executioner at
Newgate, sixty or seventy years ago, derived no inconsiderable
revenue from this foolish practice. The possession of the hand was
thought to be of still greater efficacy in the cure of diseases
and the prevention of misfortunes. In the time of Charles II as
much as ten guineas was thought a small price for one of these
disgusting relics.

When the maniac, Thom, or Courtenay, was shot, in the spring of
1838, the relic-hunters were immediately in motion to obtain a
memento of so extraordinary an individual. His long, black beard
and hair, which were cut off by the surgeons, fell into the hands
of his disciples, by whom they are treasured with the utmost
reverence. A lock of his hair commands a great price, not only
amongst his followers, but among the more wealthy inhabitants of
Canterbury and its neighbourhood. The tree against which he fell
when he was shot, has already been stripped of all its bark by the
curious, and bids fair to be entirely demolished within a
twelvemonth. A letter, with his signature to it, is paid for in
gold coins; and his favourite horse promises to become as
celebrated as his master. Parties of ladies and gentlemen have
come to Boughton from a distance of a hundred and fifty miles, to
visit the scene of that fatal affray, and stroke on the back the
horse of the "mad Knight of Malta." If a strict watch had not been
kept over his grave for months, the body would have been
disinterred, and the bones carried away as memorials.

Among the Chinese no relics are more valued than the boots which
have been worn by an upright magistrate. In Davis's interesting
Description of the Empire of China, we are informed, that whenever
a judge of unusual integrity resigns his situation, the people all
congregate to do him honour. If he leaves the city where he has
presided, the crowd accompany him from his residence to the gates,
where his boots are drawn off with great ceremony, to be preserved
in the hall of justice. Their place is immediately supplied by a
new pair, which, in their turn, are drawn off to make room for
others before he has worn them five minutes, it being considered
sufficient to consecrate them that he should have merely drawn
them on.

Among the most favourite relics of modern times, in Europe, are
Shakspeare's mulberry-tree, Napoleon’s willow, and the table at
Waterloo, on which the Emperor wrote his despatches. Snuffboxes of
Shakspeare’s mulberry-tree, are comparatively rare, though there
are doubtless more of them in the market than were ever made of
the wood planted by the great bard. Many a piece of alien wood
passes under this name. The same may be said of Napoleon’s table
at Waterloo. The original has long since been destroyed, and a
round dozen of counterfeits along with it. Many preserve the
simple stick of wood; others have them cut into brooches and every
variety of ornament; but by far the greater number prefer them as
snuff-boxes. In France they are made into bonbonnières, and are
much esteemed by the many thousands whose cheeks still glow, and
whose eyes still sparkle at the name of Napoleon.

Bullets from the field of Waterloo, and buttons from the coats of
the soldiers who fell in the fight, are still favourite relics in
Europe. But the same ingenuity which found new tables after the
old one was destroyed, has cast new bullets for the curious. Many
a one who thinks himself the possessor of a bullet which aided in
giving peace to the world on that memorable day, is the owner of a
dump, first extracted from the ore a dozen years afterwards. Let
all lovers of genuine relics look well to their money before they
part with it to the ciceroni that swarm in the village of
Waterloo.

Few travellers stop at the lonely isle of St. Helena, without
cutting a twig from the willow that droops over the grave of
Napoleon. Many of them have since been planted in different parts
of Europe, and have grown into trees as large as their parent.
Relic-hunters, who are unable to procure a twig of the original,
are content with one from these. Several of them are growing in
the neighbourhood of London, more prized by their cultivators than
any other tree in their gardens. But in relics, as in everything
else, there is the use and the abuse. The undoubted relics of
great men, or great events, will always possess attractions for
the thinking and refined. There are few who would not join with
Cowley in the extravagant wish introduced in his lines "written
while sitting in a chair made of the remains of the ship in which
Sir Francis Drake sailed round the world:"

"And I myself, who now love quiet too,
  Almost as much as any chair can do,
  Would yet a journey take

An old wheel of that chariot to see,
  Which Phaeton so rashly brake."



Notes

1. Miss Elizabeth Villiers, afterwards Countess of Orkney.
2. The wits of the day called it a sand-bank, which would wreck the vessel 
of the state.
3. This anecdote, which is related in the correspondence of Madame de 
Bavière, Duchess of Orleans and mother of the Regent, is discredited by 
Lord John Russell in his History of the principal States of Europe from 
the Peace of Utrecht; for what reason he does not inform us. There is no 
doubt that Law proposed his scheme to Desmarets, and that Louis refused to 
hear of it. The reason given for the refusal is quite consistent with the 
character of that bigoted and tyrannical monarch.
4. From maltôte, an oppressive tax.
5. This anecdote is related by M. de la Hode, in his Life of Philippe of
Orleans. It would have looked more authentic if he had given the names of 
the dishonest contractor and the still more dishonest minister. But M. de 
la Hode's book is liable to the same objection as most of the French 
memoirs of that and of subsequent periods. It is sufficient with most of 
them that an anecdote be ben trovato; the vero is but matter of secondary 
consideration.
6. The French prounounced his name in this manner to avoid the ungallic 
sound, aw. After the failure of his scheme, the wags said the nation was 
lasse de lui, and proposed that he should in future be known by the name 
of Monsieur Helas!
7. The curious reader may find an anecdote of the eagerness of the French
ladies to retain Law in their company, which will make him blush or smile
according as he happens to be very modest or the reverse. It is related in 
the Letters of Madame Charlotte Elizabeth de Bavière, Duchess of Orleans, 
vol. ii. p. 274.
8. The following squib was circulated on the occasion:
  "Foin de ton zèle séraphique,
     Malheureaux Abbé de Tencin,
  Depuis que Law est Catholique,
     Tout le royaume est Capucin!"
Thus somewhat weakly and paraphrastically rendered by Justandsond, in his
translation of the Memoirs of Louis XV:
  "Tencin, a curse on thy seraphic zeal,
     Which by persuasion hath contrived the means
  To make the Scotchman at our altars kneel,
     Since which we are all poor as Capucines!"
9. The Duke de la Force gained considerable sums, not only by jobbing in 
the stocks but in dealing in porcelain, spices, &c. It was debated for a 
length of time in the parliament of Paris whether he had not, in his 
quality of spice-merchant, forfeited his rank in the peerage. It was 
decided in the negative. A caricature of him was made, dressed as a street-
porter, carrying a large bale of spices on his back, with the inscription, 
"Admirez LA FORCE."
10. Duclos Mémoires Secrets de la Régence.
11. The Duchess of Orleans gives a different version of this story; but
whichever be the true one, the manifestation of such feeling in a 
legislative assembly was not very creditable. She says that the president 
was so transported with joy, that he was seized with a rhyming fit, and 
returning into the hall, exclaimed to the members:
  "Messieurs! Messieurs! bonne nouvelle!
  Le carrosse de Lass est reduit en cannelle!"
12. A South Sea Ballad; or, Merry Remarks upon Exchange Alley Bubbles. To a
new tune, called "The Grand Elixir; or, the Philosopher's Stone 
Discovered."
13. Coxe's Walpole, Correspondence between Mr. Secretary Craggs and Earl
Stanhope.
14. Gay (the poet), in that disastrous year, had a present from young 
Craggs of some South-Sea stock, and once supposed himself to be master of 
twenty thousand pounds. His friends persuaded him to sell his share, but 
he dreamed of dignity and splendour, and could not bear to obstruct his 
own fortune. He was then importuned to sell as much as would purchase a 
hundred a year for life, "which," says Fenton, "will make you sure of a 
clean shirt and a shoulder of mutton every day." This counsel was 
rejected; the profit and principal were lost, and Gay sunk under the 
calamity so low that his life became in danger.—Johnson's Lives of the 
Poets.
15. Smollett.
16.
  " ' God cannot love,' says Blunt, with tearless eyes,
  'The wretch he starres, and piously denies.'...
  Much-injur'd Blunt! why bears he Britain's hate?
  A wizard told him in these words our fate:
  'At length corruption, like a gen'ral flood,
  So long by watchful ministers withstood,
  Shall deluge all; and av'rice, creeping on,
  Spread like a low-born mist, and blot the sun;
  Statesman and patriot ply alike the stocks,
  Peeress and butler share alike the box,
  And judges job, and bishops bite the Town,
  And mighty dukes pack cards for half-a-crown:
  See Britain sunk in Lucre's sordid charms
  And France reveng'd of Anne's and Edward's arms!'
  'Twas no court-badge, great Scriv'ner! fir'd thy brain,
  Nor lordly luxury, nor city gain:
  No, 'twas thy righteous end, asham'd to see
  Senates degen'rate, patriots disagree,
  And nobly wishing party-rage to cease,
  To buy both sides, and give thy country peace."
Pope's Epistle to Allen Lord Bathurst.
17. The South-Sea project remained until 1845 the greatest example in 
British history of the infatuation of the people for commercial gambling. 
The first edition of these volumes was published some time before the 
outbreak of the Great Railway Mania of that and the following year.
18. Biographie Universelle.
19. His "sum of perfection," or instructions to students to aid them in the
laborious search for the stone and elixir, has been translated into most of
the languages of Europe. An English translation, by a great enthusiast in
alchymy, one Richard Russell, was published in London in 1686. The preface 
is dated eight years previously, from the house of the alchymist, "at the 
Star, in Newmarket, in Wapping, near the Dock." His design in undertaking 
the translation was, as he informs us, to expose the false pretences of 
the many ignorant pretenders to the science who abounded in his day.
20. Article, Geber, Biographie Universelle.
21. Naudé, Apologie des Grands Hommes accusés de Magie, chap. xviii.
22. Lenglet, Histoire de la Philosophie Hermétique. See also, Godwin's 
Lives of the Necromancers.
23. Naudé, Apologie des Grands Hommes accusés de Magie, chap. xvii.
24. Vidimus omnia ista dum ad Angliam transiimus, propter intercessionem
domini Regis Edoardi illustrissimi.
25. Converti una vice in aurum ad L millia pondo argenti vivi, plumbi, et
stanni.—Lullii Testamentum.
26. These verses are but a coarser expression of the slanderous line of 
Pope, that "every woman is at heart a rake."
27. Fuller's Worthies of England.
28. Biographie Universelle.
29. For full details of this extraordinary trial, see Lobineau's Nouvelle
Histoire de Bretagne, and D'Argentré's work on the same subject. The 
character and life of Gilles de Rays are believed to have suggested the 
famous Blue Beard of the nursery tale.
30. See the article "Paracelsus," by the learned Renaudin, in the 
Biographie Universelle.
31. The "crystal" alluded to appears to have been a black stone, or piece 
of polished coal. The following account of it is given in the supplement to
Granger's Biographical History. "The black stone into which Dee used to 
call his spirits was in the collection of the Earls of Peterborough, from 
whence it came to Lady Elizabeth Germaine. It was next the property of the 
late Duke of Argyle, and is now Mr. Walpole's. It appears upon examination 
to be nothing more than a polished piece of cannel coal; but this is what 
Butler means when he says,
'Kelly did all his feats upon
The devil's looking-glass—a stone.' "
32. Lilly the astrologer, in his Life, written by himself, frequently 
tells of prophecies delivered by the angels in a manner similar to the 
angels of Dr. Dee. He says, "The prophecies were not given vocally by the 
angels, but by inspection of the crystal in types and figures, or by 
apparition the circular way; where, at some distance, the angels appear, 
representing by forms, shapes, and creatures what is demanded. It is very 
rare, yea even in our days," quoth that wiseacre, "for any operator or 
master to hear the angels speak articulately: when they do speak, it is 
like the Irish, much in the throat!"
33. Albert Laski, son of Jaroslav, was Palatine of Siradz, and afterwards 
of Sendomir, and chiefly contributed to the election of Henry of Valois, 
the Third of France, to the throne of Poland, and was one of the delegates 
who went to France in order to announce to the new monarch his elevation 
to the sovereignty of Poland. After the deposition of Henry, Albert Laski 
voted for Maximilian of Austria. In 1583 he visited England, when Queen 
Elizabeth received him with great distinction. The honours which were 
shewn him during his visit to Oxford, by the especial command of the 
Queen, were equal to those rendered to sovereign princes. His 
extraordinary prodigality rendered his enormous wealth insufficient to 
defray his expenses, and he therefore became a zealous adept in alchymy, 
and took from England to Poland with him two known alchymists.—Count 
Valerian Krasinski's Historical Sketch of the Reformation in Poland.
34. The following legend of the tomb of Rosencreutz, written by Eustace
Budgell, appears in No. 379 of the Spectator:—"A certain person, having
occasion to dig somewhat deep in the ground where this philosopher lay
interred, met with a small door, having a wall on each side of it. His
curiosity, and the hope of finding some hidden treasure, soon prompted him 
to force open the door. He was immediately surprised by a sudden blaze of 
light, and discovered a very fair vault. At the upper end of it was a 
statue of a man in armour, sitting by a table, and leaning on his left 
arm. He held a truncheon in his right hand, and had a lamp burning before 
him. The man had no sooner set one foot within the vault, than the statue, 
erecting itself from its leaning posture, stood bolt upright; and, upon 
the fellow's advancing another step, lifted up the truncheon in his right 
hand. The man still ventured a third step; when the statue, with a furious 
blow, broke the lamp into a thousand pieces, and left his guest in sudden 
darkness. Upon the report of this adventure, the country people came with 
lights to the sepulchre, and discovered that the statue, which was made of 
brass, was nothing more than a piece of clock-work; that the floor of the 
vault was all loose, and underlaid with several springs, which, upon any 
man's entering, naturally produced that which had happened. "Rosicreucius, 
say his disciples, made use of this method to show the world that he had 
re-invented the ever-burning lamps of the ancients, though he was resolved 
no one should reap any advantage from the discovery."
35. No. 574. Friday, July 30th, 1714.
36. "Vitulus Aureus quem Mundus adorat et orat, in quo tractatur de naturæ
miraculo transmutandi metalla." Hagæ, 1667.
37. Voyages de Monconis, tome ii. p. 379.
38. See the Abbé Fiard, and Anecdotes of the Reign of Louis XVI. p. 400.
39. Biographie des Contemporains, article "Cagliostro." See also Histoire 
de la Magie en France, par M. Jules Garinet, p. 284.
40. The enemies of the unfortunate Queen of France, when the progress of 
the Revolution embittered their animosity against her, maintained that she 
was really a party in this transaction; that she, and not Mademoiselle 
D'Oliva, met the cardinal and rewarded him with the flower; and that the 
story above related was merely concocted between her, La Motte, and others 
to cheat the jeweller of his 1,600,000 francs.
41. See Gibbon and Voltaire for further notice of this subject.
42. Charlemagne. Poëme épique, par Lucien Buonaparte.
43. This prophecy seems to have been that set forth at length in the 
popular Life of Mother Shipton:
"When fate to England shall restore
A king to reign as heretofore,
Great death in London shall be though,
And many houses be laid low."
44. The London Saturday Journal of March 12th, 1842, contains the
following:—"An absurd report is gaining ground among the weak-minded, that
London will be destroyed by an earthquake on the 17th of March, or St.
Patrick's day. This rumour is founded on the following ancient prophecies: 
one professing to be pronounced in the year 1203; the other, by Dr. Dee the
astrologer, in 1598:
  "In eighteen hundred and forty-two
  Four things the sun shall view:
  London's rich and famous town
  Hungry earth shall swallow down.
  Storm and rain in France shall be,
  Till every river runs a sea.
  Spain shall be rent in twain,
  And famine waste the land again.
  So say I, the Monk of Dree,
  In the twelve hundedth year and three."
          Harleian Collection (British Museum), 800 b, fol. 319.
  "The Lord have mercy on you all—
  Prepare yourselves for dreadful fall
  Of house and land and human soul—
  The measure of your sins is full.
  In the year one, eight, and forty-two,
  Of the year that is so new;
  In the third month of that sixteen,
  It may be a day or two between—
  Perhaps you'll soon be stiff and cold.
  Dear Christian, be not stout and bold—
  The mighty, kingly-proud will see
  This comes to pass as my name's Dee."
          1598. Ms. in the British Museum.
The alarm of the population of London did not on this occasion extend 
beyond the wide circle of the uneducated classes, but among them it 
equalled that recorded in the text. It was soon afterwards stated that no 
such prophecy is to be found in the Harleian Ms.
45. Chronicles of England, by Richard Grafton; London, 1568, p. 106.
46. Faerie Queene, b. 3, c. 3, s. 6-13.
47. Let us try. In his second century, prediction 66, he says:
"From great dangers the captive is escaped.
A little time, great fortune changed.
In the palace the people are caught.
By good augury the city is besieged."
"What is this," a believer might exclaim, "but the escape of Napoleon from
Elba—his changed fortune, and the occupation of Paris by the allied 
armies?"
Let us try again. In his third century, prediction 98, he says:
"Two royal brothers will make fierce war on each other;
So mortal shall be the strife between them,
That each one shall occupy a fort against the other;
For their reign and life shall be the quarrel."
Some Lillius Redivivus would find no difficulty in this prediction. To use 
a vulgar phrase, it is as clear as a pikestaff. Had not the astrologer in 
view Don Miguel and Don Pedro when he penned this stanza, so much less 
obscure and oracular than the rest?
48. Hermippus Redivivus, p. 142.
49. Jovii Elog. p. 320.
50. Les Anecdotes de Florence, ou l'Histoire secrète de la Maison di 
Medicis, p. 318.
51. It is quite astonishing to see the great demand there is, both in 
England and France, for dream-books, and other trash of the same kind. Two 
books in England enjoy an extraordinary popularity, and have run through 
upwards of fifty editions in as many years in London alone, besides being 
reprinted in Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dublin. One is Mother 
Bridget's Dream-book and Oracle of Fate; the other is the Norwood Gipsy. 
It is stated, on the authority of one who is curious in these matters, 
that there is a demand for these works, which are sold at sums varying 
from a penny to sixpence, chiefly to servant-girls and imperfectly-
educated people, all over the country, of upwards of eleven thousand 
annually; and that at no period during the last thirty years has the 
average number sold been less than this. The total number during this 
period would thus amount to 330,000.
52. Spectator, No. 7, March 8th, 1710-11.
53. See Van der Mye's account of the siege of Breda. The garrison, being
afflicted with scurvy, the Prince of Orange sent the physicians two or 
three small phials, containing a decoction of camomile, wormwood, and 
camphor, telling them to pretend that it was a medicine of the greatest 
value and extremest rarity, which had been procured with very much danger 
and difficulty from the East; and so strong, that two or three drops would 
impart a healing virtue to a gallon of water. The soldiers had faith in 
their commander; they took the medicine with cheerful faces, and grew well 
rapidly. They afterwards thronged about the prince in groups of twenty and 
thirty at a time, praising his skill, and loading him with protestations 
of gratitude.
54. Mummies were of several kinds, and were all of great use in magnetic
medicines. Paracelsus enumerates six kinds of mummies; the first four only
differing in the composition used by different people for preserving their
dead, are the Egyptian, Arabian, Pisasphaltos, and Lybian. The fifth mummy 
of peculiar power was made from criminals that had been hanged; "for from 
such there is a gentle siccation, that expungeth the watery humour, without
destroying the oil and spirituall, which is cherished by the heavenly
luminaries, and strengthened continually by the affluence and impulses of 
the celestial spirits; whence it may be properly called by the name of
constellated or celestial mummie." The sixth kind of mummy was made of
corpuscles, or spiritual effluences, radiated from the living body; though 
we cannot get very clear ideas on this head, or respecting the manner in 
which they were caught.—Medicina Diatastica; or, Sympathetical Mummie, 
abstracted from the Works of Paracelsus, and translated out of the Latin, 
by Fernando Parkhurst, Gent. London, 1653, pp. 2, 7. Quoted by the Foreign 
Quarterly Review, vol. xii. p. 415.
55. Reginald Scott, quoted by Sir Walter Scott, in the notes to the Lay of 
the last Minstrel, c. iii. v. xxiii.
56. Greatraks' Account of himself, in a letter to the Honourable Robert 
Boyle.
57. Introduction to the Study of Animal Magnetism, by Baron Dupotet de
Sennevoy, p. 315.
58. Introduction to the Study of Animal Magnetism, p. 318.
59. Dictionnaire des Sciences Médicales—Article Convulsionnaires, par
Montégre.
60. An enthusiastic philosopher, of whose name we are not informed, had
constructed a very satisfactory theory on some subject or other, and was 
not a little proud of it. "But the facts, my dear fellow," said his 
friend, "the facts do not agree with your theory."—"Don't they?" replied 
the philosopher, shrugging his shoulders, "then, tant pis pour les faits;
"—so much the worse for the facts!
61. Rapport des Commissaires, rédigé par M. Bailly. Paris, 1784.
62. Introduction to the Study of Animal Magnetism, by Baron Dupotet, p. 73.
63. See Foreign Review and Continental Miscellany, vol. v. p. 113.
64. See the very calm, clear, and dispassionate article upon the subject in
the fifth volume (1830) of The Foreign Review, p. 96 et seq.
65. Histoire Critique du Magnétisme Animal, p. 60.
66. Guibert de Nogent
67. Guibert de Nogent
68. M. Wilken's Geschichte der Kreuzzuge.
69. Wilken
70. Fulcher of Chartres.—Guibert de Nogent.—Vital.
71. William of Tyre.—Mills.—Wilken, &c.
72. Vide William of Tyre.
73. Guibert de Nogent relates a curious instance of the imitativeness of 
these juvenile crusaders. He says that, during the siege of Antioch, the 
Christian and Saracen boys used to issue forth every evening from the town 
and camp in great numbers under the command of captains chosen from among 
themselves. Armed with sticks instead of swords, and stones instead of 
arrows, they ranged themselves in battle order, and shouting each the war-
cry of their country, fought with the utmost desperation. Some of them 
lost their eyes, and many became cripples for life from the injuries they 
received on these occasions.
74. The sacking of Vitry reflects indelible disgrace upon Louis VII. His
predecessors had been long engaged in resistance to the outrageous powers
assumed by the Popes, and Louis continued the same policy. The 
ecclesiastical chapter of Bourges, having elected an Archbishop without 
his consent, he proclaimed the election to be invalid, and took severe and 
prompt measures against the refractory clergy. Thibault, Count de 
Champagne, took up arms in defence of the Papal authority, and intrenched 
himself in the town of Vitry. Louis was immediately in the field to 
chastise the rebel, and he besieged the town with so much vigour, that the 
Count was forced to surrender. Upwards of thirteen hundred of the 
inhabitants, fully one half of whom were women and children, took refuge 
in the church; and, when the gates of the city were opened, and all 
resistance had ceased, Louis inhumanly gave orders to set fire
to the church, and a thousand persons perished in the flames.
75. Philip, Archdeacon of the cathedral of Liege, wrote a detailed account 
of all the miracles performed by St. Bernard during thirty-four days of his
mission. They averaged about ten per day. The disciples of St. Bernard
complained bitterly that the people flocked around their master in such
numbers, that they could not see half the miracles he performed. But they
willingly trusted the eyes of others, as far as faith in the miracles went,
and seemed to vie with each other whose credulity should be greatest.
76. James of Vitry—William de Nangis.
77. The desire of comparing two great men has tempted many writers to drown
Frederick in the river Cydnus, in which Alexander so imprudently bathed (Q.
Curt. lib. iii. c. 4, 5.): but, from the march of the Emperor, I rather 
judge that his Saleph is the Calycadnus, a stream of less fame, but of a 
longer course.—Gibbon
78. Stowe.
79. Elemens de l'Histoire de France.
80. Strutt's Sports and Pastimes."
81. Richard left a high reputation in Palestine. So much terror did his 
name occasion, that the women of Syria used it to frighten their children 
for ages afterwards. Every disobedient brat became still when told that 
King Richard was coming. Even men shared the panic that his name created; 
and a hundred years afterwards, whenever a horse shied at any object in 
the way, his rider would exclaim, "What! dost thou think King Richard is 
in the bush?"
82. The following is a list of some of the works of art thus destroyed, 
from Nicetas, a contemporary Greek author:—1st. A colossal Juno, from the 
forum of Constantine, the head of which was so large that four horses 
could scarcely draw it from the place where it stood to the palace. 2d. 
The statue of Paris presenting the apple to Venus. 3d. An immense bronze 
pyramid, crowned by a female figure, which turned with the wind. 4th. The 
colossal statue of Bellerophon, in bronze, which was broken down and cast 
into the furnace. Under the inner nail of the horse's hind foot on the 
left side, was found a seal wrapped in a woollen cloth. 5th. A figure of 
Hercules, by Lysimachus, of such vast dimensions that the thumb was equal 
in circumference to the waist of a man. 6th. The Ass and his driver, cast 
by order of Augustus after the battle of Actium, in commemoration of his 
having discovered the position of Antony through the means of an ass-
driver. 7th. The Wolf suckling the twins of Rome. 8th. The Gladiator in 
combat with a lion. 9th. The Hippopotamus. 10th. The Sphinxes. 11th. An 
eagle fighting with a serpent. 12th. A beautiful statue of Helen. 13th. A 
group, with a monster somewhat resembling a bull, engaged in deadly 
conflict with a serpent; and many other works of art, too numerous to
mention.
83. See Jacob de Voragine and Albericus.
84. Elemens de l'Histoire de France.
85. Mills, in his history, gives the name of this chief as Al Malek al 
Dhaker Rokneddin Abulfeth Bibars al Ali al Bundokdari al Salehi."
86. The reader will recognise the incident which Sir Walter Scott has
introduced into his beautiful romance, "The Talisman," and which, with the
licence claimed by poets and romancers, he represents as having befallen 
King Richard I.
87. See article on Demonology, in the sixth volume of the "Foreign 
Quarterly Review.
88. Histoire de la Magie en France. Rois de la seconde race," page 29.
89. M. Michaud, in his "History of the Crusades," M. Guinguené, in his
"Literary History of Italy," and some other critics, have objected to 
Tasso's poem, that he has attributed to the Crusaders a belief in magic, 
which did not exist at that time. If these critics had referred to the 
Edicts of Charlemagne, they would have seen that Tasso was right, and that 
a disposition too eager to spy out imperfections in a great work was 
leading themselves into error.
90. Entstehungsgeschichte der freistadlischen Bunde im Mittelalter, von 
Dr. F.
Kortum." 1827.
91. Bodin, page 95. Garinet, page 125. "Anti-demon de Serclier," page 346.
92. Tablier. See also Boguet, "Discours sur les Sorciers;" and M. Jules
Garinet, "Histoire de la Magie," page 150.
93. Foreign Quarterly Review, vol. vi. page 41.
94. News from Scotland, declaring the damnable life of Dr. Fian.
95. Satan's Invisible World discovered," by the Rev. G. Sinclair.
96. Pitcairn's "Records of Justiciary."
97. Preface to "Law's Memorials," edited by Sharpe.
98. Zauber Bibliothek. Theil 5.
99. They sent a hangman's assistant down to her in her prison; they clothed
him properly in a bear's skin, as if he were the devil. Him, when the witch
saw, she thought he was her familiar. She said to him quickly, "Why hast 
thou left me so long in the magistrate's hands? Help me out of their 
power, as thou hast promised, and I will be thine alone. Help me from this 
anguish, O thou dearest devil (or lover), mine?"
100. A very graphic account of the execution of this unfortunate gentleman 
is to be found in the excellent romance of M. Alfred de Vigny, entitled 
"Cinq Mars;" but if the reader wishes for a full and accurate detail of 
all the circumstances of one of the most extraordinary trials upon record, 
he is referred to a work published anonymously, at Amsterdam, in 1693, 
entitled Histoire des Diables de Loudun, ou de la Possession des 
Religieuses Ursulines, et de la Condemnation et du Supplice d'Urbain 
Grandier.
101. The punishment for the contumacious was expressed by the words onere,
frigore, et fame. By the first was meant that the culprit should be 
extended on his back on the ground, and weights placed over his body, 
gradually increased, until he expired. Sometimes the punishment was not 
extended to this length, and the victim, being allowed to recover, 
underwent the second portion, the frigore, which consisted in his standing 
naked in the open air, for a certain space, in the sight of all the 
people. The third, or fame, was more dreadful, the statute saying, "That 
he was to be preserved with the coarsest bread that could be got, and 
water out of the next sink or puddle, to the place of execution; and that 
day he had water he should have no bread, and that day he had bread, he 
should have no water;" and in this torment he was to linger as long as 
nature would hold out.
102. This is denied by Voltaire in his "Age of Louis XIV;" but he does not
state for what reason. His words are, "Il est faux qu'elle eut essayé ses
poisons dans les hôpitaux, comme le disait le peuple et comme il est écrit
dans les Causes Célèbres, ouvrage d'un avocat sans cause et fait pour le
peuple."
103. Slow poisoning is a crime which has unhappily been revived in England
within the last few years, and which has been carried to an extent 
sufficient to cast a stain upon the national character. The poisoners have 
been principally women of the lowest class, and their victims have been 
their husbands or their children. The motive for the crime has in most 
instances been the basest that can be imagined,—the desire to obtain from 
burial-clubs to which they subscribed, the premium, or burial-money. A 
recent entactment, restricting the sale of arsenic and other poisons, 
will, it is to be hoped, check if it do not extirpate, this abominable 
crime.—1851.
104. Garinet. Histoire de la Magie en France, page 75.
105. Ibid. p. 156.
106. Dr. H. More's Continuation of Glanvil's Collection of Relations in 
proof of Witchcraft.
107. The woman whose ghost was said to manifest itself in Cock Lane was 
buried in the crypt or cloister of St. John, Clerkenwell. The vault is 
composed of two aisles, that on the south being much narrower than the 
other,—it was here she was deposited.
About seven years since, I was sketching a picturesque trefoil-headed door
leading into this part of the vault; and the place being at that time in 
great confusion with coffins, remains of bodies, some of which were dried 
like mummies, &c., I could find no better seat than one of the coffins. The
sexton's boy, who held my light, informed me this was the coffin of 
Scratching Fanny, which recalled the Cock Lane story to my mind. I got off 
the lid of the coffin, and saw the face of a handsome woman, with an 
aquiline nose; this feature remaining perfect, an uncommon case, for the 
cartilage mostly gives way. The remains had become adipocere, and were 
perfectly preserved. She was said to have been poisoned by deleterious 
punch, but this was legally disproved; and, if I remember rightly, she was 
otherwise declared to have died of small-pox; of this disease there was 
not the least sign; but as some mineral poisons tend to render bodies 
adipocere, here was some evidence in support of the former allegation. I 
made particular inquiries at the time of Mr. Bird, churchwarden, a 
respectable and judicious man; and he gave me good assurance that this 
coffin had always been looked upon as the one containing the Cock Lane 
woman. Since that time the vault has been set in order, and the
above-mentioned coffin, with others, put away. The niche near the window 
of the Ghost Room is the place where the bed-head was, and where the 
scratching, knocks, &c. were heard. This is the tradition of the house. 
Mrs. King, who holds the premises, informs me that her family has had the 
house about eighty years.˜J. W. ARCHER.
108. Shakspeare's Rape of Lucretia.
109. The Abbé, in the second volume, in the letter No. 79, dressed to 
Monsieur de Buffon, gives the following curious particulars of the robbers 
of 1757, which are not without interest at this day, if it were only to 
show the vast improvement which has taken place since that period :—"It is 
usual, in travelling, to put ten or a dozen guineas in a separate pocket, 
as a tribute to the first that comes to demand them: the right of 
passport, which custom has established here in favour of the robbers, who 
are almost the only highway surveyors in England, has made this necessary; 
and accordingly the English call these fellows the 'Gentlemen of the Road,
" the government letting them exercise their jurisdiction upon travellers 
without giving them any great molestation. To say the truth, they content 
themselves with only taking the money of those who obey without disputing; 
but notwithstanding their boasted humanity, the lives of those who 
endeavour to get away are not always safe. They are very strict and severe 
in levying their impost; and if a man has not wherewithal to pay them, he 
may run the chance of getting himself knocked on the head for his poverty.
"About fifteen years ago, these robbers, with the view of maintaining their
rights, fixed up papers at the doors of rich people about London, expressly
forbidding all persons, of whatsoever quality or condition, from going out 
of town without ten guineas and a watch about them, on pain of death. In 
bad times, when there is little or nothing to be got on the roads, these 
fellows assemble in gangs, to raise contributions even in London itself; 
and the watchmen seldom trouble themselves to interfere with them in their 
vocation."
110. Since the publication of the first edition of this volume, Jack
Sheppard's adventures have been revived. A novel upon the real or fabulous
history of the burglar has afforded, by its extraordinary popularity, a
further exemplification of the allegations in the text. The Sixth Report of
the Inspector of Prisons for the Northern Districts of England contains a 
mass of information upon the pernicious effect of such romances, and of 
the dramas founded upon them. The Inspector examined several boys 
attending the prison school in the New Bailey at Manchester, from whose 
evidence the following passages bearing upon the subject are extracted:
"J. L. (aged 15). The first time I was ever at the theatre was to see Jack
Sheppard. There were two or three boys near to the house who were going, 
and they asked me. I took sixpence from the money I used to lay up weekly 
for clothes. The next time I went, which was the week after, I borrowed 
the money from a boy; I returned it to him the Saturday after. I then went 
many times. I took the money from my mother out of her pocket as she was 
sitting down, and I beside her. There was more than sixpence in her 
pocket. I got a great love for the theatre, and stole from people often to 
get there. I thought this Jack Sheppard was a clever fellow for making his 
escape and robbing his master. If I could get out of gaol, I think I 
should be as clever as him; but after his exploits, he got done at last. I 
have had the book out of a library at Dole Field. I had paid twopence a 
book for three volumes. I also got Richard Turpin, in two volumes, and 
paid the same. I have seen Oliver Twist, and think the Artful Dodger is 
very like some of the boys here. I am here for picking a pocket of 25l..
H. C. (aged 16). When we came to Manchester, I went to the play, and saw 
Jack Sheppard the first night it came out. There were pictures of him 
about the streets on boards and on the walls; one of them was his picking 
a pocket in the church. I liked Jack Sheppard much. I had not been in 
prison there. I was employed in a warehouse at 6s. 6d. a week, and was 
allowed 6d. out of it for myself, and with that I went regularly to the 
play. I saw Jack Sheppard afterwards four times in one week. I got the 
money out of my money-bag by stealth, and without my master's knowledge. I 
once borrowed 10s. in my mother's name from Mrs. —, a shopkeeper, with 
whom she used to deal; I went to the play with it. J. M'D. (aged 16). I 
have heard of Jack Sheppard: a lad whom I know told me of it, who had seen 
it, and said it was rare fun to see him break out of prison. J. L. (aged 
12). Had been to the play twice, and seen Jack Sheppard. Went with his 
brother the first time, and by himself the second. I took the money to go
a second time out of mother's house, off the chimney-piece, where she had 
left a sixpence. It was the first night Jack Sheppard was played. There 
was great talk about it, and there were nice pictures about it all over 
the walls. I thought him a very clever fellow; but Blueskin made the most 
fun. I first went to the markets, and begun by stealing apples. I also 
knew a lad, —, who has been transported, and went with him two or three 
times. The most I ever got was 10s. out of a till." The Inspector's Report 
on Jevenile Delinquency at Liverpool contains much matter of the same 
kind; but sufficient has been already quoted to shew the injurious effects 
of the deification of great theives by thoughtless novelists.
111. For a full account of this noted robber, and indeed of European 
thieves and banditti in general, see the very amusing work upon the 
subject by Mr. Charles Macfarlane.
112. See also "Foreign Quarterly Review," vol. iv. p. 398.
113. Lavinia Fenton, afterwards Duchess of Bolton.
114. Esprit des Loix," liv. xxviii. chap. xvii.
115. Very similar to this is the fire-ordeal of the modern Hindoos, which 
is thus described in Forbes's "Oriental Memoirs," vol. i. c. xi.—" When a 
man, accused of a capital crime, chooses to undergo the ordeal trial, he 
is closely confined for several days; his right hand and arm are covered 
with thick wax-cloth, tied up and sealed, in the presence of proper 
officers, to prevent deceit. In the English districts the covering was 
always sealed with the Company's arms, and the prisoner placed under an 
European guard. At the time fixed for the ordeal, a caldron of oil is 
placed over a fire; when it boils, a piece of money is dropped into the 
vessel; the prisoner's arm is unsealed, and washed in the presence of his 
judges and accusers. During this part of the ceremony, the attendant 
Brahmins supplicate the Deity. On receiving their benediction, the accused 
plunges his hand into the boiling fluid, and takes out the coin. The arm 
is afterwards again Sealed up until the time appointed for a re-
examination. The seal is then broken: if no blemish appears, the prisoner 
is declared innocent; if the contrary, he suffers the punishment due to 
his crime." * * * On this trial the accused thus addresses the element
before plunging his hand into the boiling oil:—"Thou, O fire! pervadest all
things. O cause of purity! who givest evidence of virtue and of sin, 
declare the truth in this my hand!" If no juggling were practised, the 
decisions by this ordeal would be all the same way; but, as some are by 
this means declared guilty, and others innocent, it is clear that the 
Brahmins, like the Christian priests of the middle ages, practise some 
deception in saving those whom they wish to be thought guiltless.
116. An ordeal very like this is still practised in India. Consecrated 
rice is the article chosen, instead of bread and cheese. Instances are not 
rare in which, through the force of imagination, guilty persons are not 
able to swallow a single grain. Conscious of their crime, and fearful of 
the punishment of Heaven, they feel a suffocating sensation in their 
throat when they attempt it, and they fall on their knees, and confess all 
that is laid to their charge. The same thing, no doubt, would have 
happened with the bread and cheese of the Roman church, if it had been 
applied to any others but ecclesiastics. The latter had too much wisdom to 
be caught in a trap of their own setting.
117. Histoire de Messire Bertrand du Guesclin, par Paul Hay du Chastelet.
Livre i. chap. xix.
118. Esprit des Loix," livre xxviii. chap. xxv.
119. Memoires de Brantome touchant les Duels.
120. Histoire de Messire Bertrand du Guesclin, livre i. chap. xix.
121. Memoires de Brantome touchant les Duels.
122. Although Francis showed himself in this case an enemy to duelling, 
yet, in his own case, he had not the same objection. Every reader of 
history must remember his answer to the challenge of the Emperor Charles 
V. The Emperor wrote that he had failed in his word, and that he would 
sustain their quarrel single-handed against him. Francis replied, that he 
lied—qu'il en avait menti par la gorge, and that he was ready to meet him 
in single combat whenever and wherever he pleased.
123. Le Père Matthias, tome ii. livre iv.
124. Elemens de l"Histoire de France, vol. iii. p. 219.
125. Mercure de France, vol. xiii.
126. Brydone's "Tour in Malta." 1772.
127. See "Life and Character of Lord Bacon," by Thomas Martin,
Barrister-at-law.
128. See History of the House and Clan of Mackay.
129. See "Spectator," Nos. 84. 97, and 99; and "Tatler," Nos. 25, 26, 29, 
31, 38, and 39; and "Guardian," No. 20.
130. Post Boy, December l3th, 1712.
131. Raleigh, at one period of his life, appeared to be an inveterate
duellist, and it was said of him that he had been engaged in more 
encounters of the kind than any man of note among his contemporaries. More 
than one fellow-creature he had deprived of life; but he lived long enough 
to be convinced of the sinfulness of his conduct, and made a solemn vow 
never to fight another duel. The following anecdote of his forbearance is 
well known, but it will bear repetition: A dispute arose in a coffee-house 
between him and a young man on some trivial point, and the latter, losing 
his temper, impertinently spat in the face of the veteran. Sir Walter, 
instead of running him through the body, as many would have done, or 
challenging him to mortal combat, coolly took out his handkerchief, wiped 
his face, and said, "Young man, if I could as easily wipe from my 
conscience the stain of killing you, as I can this spittle from my face, 
you should not live another minute." The young man immediately begged his 
pardon.
132. Vide the Letters of Joseph II to distinguished Princes and Statesmen,
published for the first time in England in "The Pamphleteer" for 1821. They
were originally published in Germany a few years previously, and throw a 
great light upon the character of that monarch and the events of his reign.
133. Encyclopedia Americana, art. Duelling.
134. Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV.