8.

"With fire and sword the country round

Was wasted far and wide,

And many a childing mother then,
And new-born baby died;

But things like that, you know, must be
At every famous victory.

9.

"They say it was a shocking sight

After the field was won;

For many thousand bodies here

Lay rotting in the sun;

But things like that, you know, must be

After a famous victory.

10.

"Great praise the Duke of Marlbro' won,

66

And our good Prince Eugene."

'Why 't was a very wicked thing!"

Said little Wilhelmine.

Nay.. nay.. my little girl," quoth he,

"It was a famous victory.

11.

"And every body praised the Duke Who this great fight did win."

"But what good came of it at last?"

66

Quoth little Peterkin.

Why that I cannot tell," said he,

"But 't was a famous victory."

Westbury, 1798.

A TRUE BALLAD

OF

ST. ANTIDIUS, THE POPE, AND THE DEVIL.

Deste Atendio cuentan las estorias que le avino, que el martes despues de Ramos, passo por la puente de un rio que ha nombre Divino; e vio en un campo gran compaña de diablos que estavan contando a sus principes los males que fazien por las tierras ; e entre todos los otros estava un negro a manera de Etyopiano : e alabavase que avie siete años que andava lidiando con el Papa por le fazer pecar; e nunca pudiera sy non entonces que le fiziera fazer ya que pecado muy grave; e esto provava lo por la sandalia del apostoligo que traye. E Sant Atendio que vido aquello, llamo aquel diablo, e conjurol por la virtud de Dios e por la Santa Cruz que lo llevasse a Roma; e cavalgo en el; e llevol a Roma, el jueves de la cena a hora de missa, el Papa que querie revestirse para dezir missa; dexo sant Atendio al diablo a la puerta e dixol que lo atendiese; e el entro dentro e saco el Papa aparte, e dixol que fiziesse penitencia de aquel pecado; e el quiso lo negar, mas fizo gelo otorgar el santo obispo con a sandalia que le dio. E fizo el Papa penitencia; e dixo sant Atendio la missa en su logar, e consagro la crisma; e tomo una partida della para sy; e despediosse del Papa, e salio fuera, e cavalgo en el diablo, e llevo lo a su arçobispado el sabado de pascua a hora de missa.-CORONICA DE ESPANA.

This Saint Atendio, according to the Chronica General, was Bishop of Vesytana in Gaul, and martyred by the Vandals

in the year 411.

The Spaniards have a tradition that he was Bishop of Jaen they say, "that as the Devil was crossing the sea with this unwelcome load upon his back, he artfully endeavoured to make Atendio pronounce the name of Jesus, which, as it breaks all spells, would have enabled him to throw him off into the water; but that the Bishop, understanding his intent, only replied, Arre Diablo, “ Gee-up, Devil!" and they add, "that when he arrived at Rome, his hat was still covered with the snow which had fallen upon it while he was passing the Alps, and that the hat is still shown at Rome in confirmation of the story and the miracle." Feyjoo has two letters upon this whimsical legend among his Cartas Eruditas. In the first (T. 1. Carta 24.) he rereplies to a correspondent who had gravely enquired his opinion upon the story, "De buen humor," says he, "estaba V. md. quando le ocurrió inquirir mi dictamen, sobre la Historieta de el Obispo de Jahen, de quien se cuenta, que fue a Roma en una noche, caballero sobre la espalda de un Diablo de alquiler: Triste de mi, si essa curiosidad se hace contagiosa, y dan muchos en seguir el exemplo de V. md. consultandome sobre cuentos de nínos y viejas." Nevertheless, though he thus treats the story as an old wife's tale, he bestows some reason

ing upon it. "As he heard it," he says, "it did not appear

whether the use which the Bishop made of the Devil were licit or illicit; that is, whether he made use of him as a wizard, by virtue of a compact, or by virtue of authority, having the permission of the Most High so to do. In either case there is a great incongruity. In the first, inasmuch as it is not credible that the Devil should voluntarily serve the Bishop for the purpose of preventing a great evil to the church: — I say voluntarily, because the notion that a compact is so binding upon the Devil that he can in no ways resist the pleasure of the person with whom he has contracted es cosa de Theologos de Vade à la cinta. In the second, because the journey being designed for a holy purpose, it is more conformable to reason that it should have been executed by the ministry of a good angel than of a bad one;

This

as, for instance, Habakkuk was transported by the ministry of a good angel from Judæa to Babylon, that he might carry food to the imprisoned Daniel. If you should oppose to me the example of Christ, who was carried by the Devil to the pinnacle of the temple, I reply, that there are two manifest disparities. The first, that Christ conducted himself in this case passively and permissively; the second, that the Devil placed him upon the pinnacle of the Temple, not for any good end, but with a most wicked intention. "But," pursues the good Benedictine, " why should I fatigue myself with arguing? I hold the story unworthy of being critically examined till it be shown me written in some history, either ecclesiastical or profane, which is entitled to some credit." Soon after this letter was published, another correspondent informed Feyjoo, that the story in question was written in the General Chronicle of King D. Alphonso the Wise. incited him to farther enquiry. He found the same legend in the Speculum Historiale of Vincentius Belovacensis, and there discovered that the saint was called Antidius, not Athendius, and that the scene lay upon the river Dunius instead of the river Divinus. Here too he found a reference to Sigebertus Gemblacensis; and in that author, the account which the Chronicler had followed and the explan ation of his errors in the topography: his Vesytania proving to be Besançon, and the river the Doubs, which the Romans called Dubius, Dubis, and Aduadubis. But he found also to his comfort, that though Jean Jacques Chiflet, a physician of Besançon, had endeavoured to prove the truth of the story for the honour of his nation or city, in a book entitled Vesontio Civitas Imperialis Libera Sequanorum, and had cited certain ancient Acts and Breviaries, in support of it; the veracious Bollandists had decided that these Acts were apochryphal, the Breviaries not to be believed in this point, and the whole story a fable which had been equally related of St. Maximus Taurinensis, and Pope Leo the Great. These Bollandists strain at a gnat, and swallow an Aullay with equal gravity. Fortified by their authority,

manner.

Feyjoo, who was worthy to have belonged to a more enlightened church, triumphantly dismissed the legend, and observed, "that the contriver was a clumsy fabler to make the Devil spend two days upon the journey, which,” as he says, "is slow travelling for an infernal postilion." (Cartas Eruditas, T. 2. C. 21.) The discussion, however, reminded him of a curious story, which he thus relates: :- "There is in this city of Oviedo a poor Porter, called by name Pedro Moreno, of whom a tale is told similar in substance to this of the Bishop of Jaen. The circumstance is related in this Some letters had been delivered to him which he was to carry to Madrid with more than ordinary diligence, because expedition was of importance. At a little distance from this city he met with a friar, who offered to join company with him for the journey: to this he objected, upon the ground, that he was going in great haste, and that the friar would not be able to keep pace with him; but in fine, the friar prevailed upon him to let it be so, and at the same time gave him a walking-stick for his use. So they began to travel together, and that so well, that Valladolid being forty leagues (160 miles) from Oviedo, they got beyond that city on the first day to dinner. The rest of the journey was performed with the same celerity. This story spread through the whole place, and was believed by all the vulgar (and by some also who were not of the vulgar) when it came to my ears: the authority referred to, was the man himself, who had related it to an infinite number of persons. I sent for him to my cell to examine him. He affirmed that the story was true, but by questioning and cross-questioning him concerning the particulars, I made him fall into many contradictions. Moreover, I found that he had told the story with many variations to different persons. What I clearly ascertained was, that he had heard the legend of the Bishop of Jaen, and thought to become a famous man, by making a like fable believed of himself. I believe that many persons were undeceived when my enquiry was known. But before this examination was made, to how many places had the