Nul ne peut diviser, par la force des bras, Le prince humble, à genoux, languissoit dans l'attente, Esteint tous autres feux par sa vive splendeur, Et répand dans le temple une divine odeur. Elle apporte au prelat ce vase precieux, Plein d'un baume sacré, rare present des Cieux.—Clovis. Guillermus Brito says that the devil brake the viol of oil which Remigius held in his hand ready to anoint Clovis, and that the oil being so spilt, he obtained by prayer a supply of it from heaven. Selden. Page 39. I. 258. The doctors of theology. Ces paroles ainsi par elle dictes, la fist le roy remener honorablement en son logis, et assemble son grand conseil, au quel furent plusieurs prelats, chevaliers, escuyers et chefs de guerre, avecques aucuns docteurs en theologie en loix et en decret, qui tous ensemble adviserent qu'elle seroit interrogué par les docteurs, pour essayer si en elle se trouveroit evidente raison de pouvoir accomplir ce qu'elle disoit. Mais les docteurs la troverent de tant honneste contenance, et tant sage en ses paroles, que leur revelation faicte, on en tient tres grand conte. Diverses interrogations luy furent faictes par plusieurs docteurs et autres gens de grand estat, a quoy elle respondit moult bien, et par especial a un docteur Jacobin, qui luy dist, que si Dieu vouloit que les Anglois s'en allassent, qu'il ne falloit point de armes ; a quoy elle respondit, qu'elle ne vouloit que peu de gens qui combattroient, et Dieu donneroit la victoire. History of the siege of Orleans. Troyes, 1621. In the Gesta Joanna Gallica of Valerandus Varanius, one of the counsellers makes a speech of seventy lines upon the wickedness of women, mentioning Helen, Beersheba, Semiramis, Dalilah, Messalina, &c. as examples. The council are influenced by his opinion, and the Maid, to prove her mission, challenges any one of them to a single combat. Quá me stultitiâ, quâ me levitate notandam Page 43. 1. 375.-St. Agnes' Chapel. Hanc virginem contigit pascendo pecora in sacello quodam vilissimo, ad declinandam pluviam obdormire; quo in tempore visa est se in somnis a Deo, qui se illi ostenderat, admoneri. Jacobus Philippus Bergomensis de claris mulieribus. Joanna Gallica Puella, dum oves pascit, tempestate coacta in proximum sacellum confugit, ibi obdormiens liberanda Galliæ mandatum divinitus accepit. — Bonfinius. Heroina nobilissima Joanna Darc Lotheringa vulgo Aurelianensis Puella historia. Authore Joanne Hordal serenissimi ducis Lotharingæ consiliario. Ponti-Mussi. 1612. Before mine eyes, such and so beautiful As when, amid the house of wickedness, The Power whom with such fervent love she served Insanus judex eam nudam ad lupanar perirahi jussit. At ubi beata virgo vestibus exuta est, statim crine soluto, tantam capillis densitatem ejus divina gratia concessit, ut melius illorum fimbriis, quam vestibus tecta videratur. Introgressa quidem Agnes turpitudinis locum, Angelum Domini præparatum invenit: eam mox tanto lumine perfudit, ut præ magnitudine splendoris, a nemine conspici posset. The exclamation of St. Agnes at the stake should not be omitted here. "Then Agnes in the midst of the flames, stretching out her hands, prayed unto the Lord, saying, 'I bless thee, O Almighty Father! who permittest me to come unto thee fearless even in the flames. For behold! what I have believed, I see; what I have hoped, I possess; what I have desired, I embrace. Therefore I confess thee with my lips, I desire thee with my heart, with my inmost entrails; I come to thee, the living and the true God!' The whole passage as it stands in the Acta Sanctorum is very fine. Tunc Vicarius Aspasius nomine, jussit in conspectu omnium ignem copiosum accendi, et in medium eam præcepit jactari flammarum. Quod cum fuisset impletum, statim in duas partes divisa sunt flammæ, et hinc atque illinc seditiosos populos exurebant, ipsam autem B. Agnen penitus in nullo contingebat incendium. Eo magis hoc non virtutibus divinis, sed maleficiis deputantes, dabant fremitus inter se populi, et infinitos clamores ad cœlum. Tunc B. Agnes expendens manus suas in medio ignis his verbis orationem fudit ad Dominum: Omnipotens, adorande, colende, tremende, Pater Domini nostri Jesu Christi, benedico te quia per filium tuum unigenitum evasi minas hominum impiorum et spurcitias diaboli impolluta transivi. Ecce et nunc per Spiritum Sanctum rore cælesti perfusa sum; focus juxta me moritur, flamma dividitur, et ardor incendii hujus ad eos a quibus ministratur, refunditur. Benedico te pater omnipotens, qui etiam per flammas, intrepidam me ad te venire permittis. Ecce jam quod credidi video, quod speravi jam teneo, quod concupivi complector. Te igitur labiis confiteor, te corde, te totis visceribus concupisco. Ecce ad te venio vivum et verum Deum : Acta Sanct. tom ii. p. 352, Jan. 21. They have a legend in Cornwall that St. Agnes" escaped out of the prison at Rome, and taking shipping, landed at St. Piran Arwothall, from whence she travelled on foot to what is now her own parish. But being several times tempted by the Devil on her way, as often as she turned about to rebuke him, she turned him into a stone, and indeed there are still to be seen on the Downs, between St. Piran and St. Agnes, several large moor stones, pitched on end, in a straight line, about a quarter of a mile distant one from the other, doubtless put there on some remarkable account. There lived then in that part of the country a famous Wrath or Giant, by name Bolster, of that ilk. He got hold of the Saint, and obliged her to gather up the stones on his domain; she carried them in three apron-fulls to the top of the hill, and made with them three great heaps, from which the hill is now called, sometimes Carne Breanich, sometimes St. Agnes' Beacon. At last this Giant or Wrath, attempted to seduce her; she pretended to yield, provided he would fill a hole which she showed him with his blood: he agreed to this, not knowing that the hole opened into the sea; she thus cunningly bled him to death, and then tumbled him over the cliff. This they still call the Wrath's Hole. It is on the top of the cliff, not far from St. Agnes' chapel and well; and, enlarging as it goes downward, opens into a cave fretted-in by the sea, and, from the nature of the stone, streaked all over with bright red streaks like blood. After this she lived some time here, and then died, having first built her chapel and her well. The water of this well is excellent; and the pavement, they tell you, is coloured with her own blood, and the more you rub it, the more it shows, such being, indeed, the nature of the stone. She likewise left the mark of her foot on a rock, not far from it, still called St. Agnes' foot, which they tell you will fit a foot of any size; and indeed it is large enough so to do. These monkish stories caused a great resort here in former days, and many cures are pretended to have been done by the water of this well, so blest by her miraculous blood.". Polwhele's History of Cornwall, i. 176-7.-N. St. Agnes, St. Catharine, and St. Margaret, were the saints more particularly reverenced by the Maid of Orleans. Page 46. line 442. Was silence to my soul. Thro' the scene are faintly heard Charles Lloyd. Page 53. line 76.- Effaced the hauberk's honourable marks. Afin d'empêcher les impressions que ce treillis de fer devait laisser sur la peau, ou avait soin de se matelasser en dessous. Malgré ces precautions cependant il en laissait encore; ces marques s'appellaient camois, et on les faisait disparaître par le bain. Le Grand. Page 55. line 121.—Then bow'd her to the sword of martyrdom. Such is the legend of St. Katharine, princess of Alexandria, whose story has been pictured upon sign-posts and in churches, but whose memory has been preserved in this country longer by the ale-house than by the altar. The most extravagant perhaps of Dryden's plays is upon this subject. In the first edition I had, ignorantly, represented Katharine as dying upon the wheel, and the description of her sufferings was far too minute. Dryden has committed the last fault in a far greater degree; the old martyrologies particularize no cruelties more revolting to the reader than he has detailed in the speech of Maximin when he orders her to execution. From a passage in the Jerusalem Conquistada it should seem that St. Katharine was miraculously betrothed to her heavenly spouse. As the crusaders approach Jerusalem, they visit the holy places on their way; Qual visita el lugar con llanto tierno, |