Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/453

 11S.I1LJUSE10.19H.J NOTES AND QUERIES.

447

end he was noted for his obliging and cere- monious manners. One evening a customer came who wanted rowing across the river. Visquee was ready, cap in hand, and too polite to do anything but follow. The unsuspecting gentleman preceded the boat- man toward the boat. Visquee brought out a concealed halter, passed it over the head of the unlucky man, whom he was carrying on his shoulders to the boat, when one Pierre Marscot, who from a corner had witnessed this transaction, drew his dagger .and called upon him to release the victim. Visquee put down his burden, and, being tall and strong, thought himself able to kill both ; but Marscot defended himself skil- fully, and the gentleman, recovering, also drew a poignard. Thus attacked, Visquee made a desperate resistance, but in the end was seriously wounded and made prisoner.

" Estant es prisons et ayant finalement endure^ la torture, il confessa dix-huict meurtres

2u'il avoit perpetre" et mis & fin pprtant les patiens ans sa barque a la facon susdite, et les execu- tant illec, pour par ce moyen couvrir son larcin."

He was condemned, says our chronicler, to be tortured with hot pincers, and then " pendu et estrangle en la fameuse ville de Londres, en Angleterre, ou il commit ces crimes."

The names and the narrative are not very convincing, but the tract is a curious specimen of the popular literature of the sixteenth century.

WILLIAM E. A. AXON.

ROUSSEAU AND VOLTAIRE. In Lloyd's Evening Post for 29 June - 2 July, 1770, appeared the following paragraph :

" Paris, June 18.

" The Sieur John James Rousseau, who is expected very soon in this city, has sent forty- eight livres to Monsieur de laTourette, Secretary of the Academy at Lyons, as his contribution to a scheme proposed by some men of letters, to erect a statue to Mr. de Voltaire, in order to perpetuate the memory of that great genius. The letter of the Philosopher of Geneva upon this subject was very nattering to Mr. de Voltaire ; and shews that he has a mind above resenting the keen sallies of a man, whose talents he acknowledges and admires."

As Rousseau had not long previously displayed bitter feelings towards Voltaire because of his suspicion that " the Philo- sopher of Ferney " was the author of Horace Walpole's invented letter from Frederick of Prussia to " Mon cher Jean Jacques," it would be interesting to know what foundation there was for any part of this story.

ALFRED F. ROBBINS. [See 10 S. vii. 326.]

(gturus*

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

" SEFTON," A CARRIAGE. On 12 January, 1898, The Times reports that " the Prince of

Wales and the Duke of York drove in

the Queen's ' Sefton ' and four.... to the Windsor station."

What is a " Sefton " ? and was it so called from the title of the Earl of Sefton, or from the name of the maker ? In the latter case the claim of the designation to be treated as a word of the English language may be doubtful. I should be glad to be furnished with any additional instances of its occurrences. HENRY BRADLEY.

Oxford.

PETER THE GREAT'S PORTRAIT. In The Sphere of 20 May there is a reproduction of one of the portraits of this sovereign, and the letterpress says that it is the only por- trait for which his Majesty ever sat. What is the authority for this statement ? And, if it is true, how did Godfrey Kneller and other artists paint their pictures of him ?

FRANK PENNY.

MANZONI'S ' IL CINQUE MAGGIO.' Some twenty or thirty years ago a translation of Manzoni's ' II Cinque Maggio ' was published in some quarterly or monthly magazine. I should be greatly obliged to any of your readers who could tell me in what magazine this translation was published, end the correct date of its publication.

D. A. CRUSE.

Leeds Library, Commercial Street, Leeds.

[A correspondent from Oregon stated at 10 S. i. 347 that a translation appeared " many years ago in an American publication called The Eclectic Magazine.}

MISTRESS KATHERINE ASHLEY (OR ASTLEY) was the well-known governess to Queen Elizabeth in her youthful days, and her admissions or " confessions " with refer- ence to the relations of the Princess with the Lord Admiral Seymour proved extremely damaging to Elizabeth (Hist. MSS. Com- mission, 'Cecil Papers'). Both she and her husband, John Astley, were imprisoned by order of the Privy Council, 21 January, 1549, she in the Tower, he in the Fleet ('Acts of the P.C.'). John Astley was speedily released, but his wife remained in confinement for some years, that is, if we assume she was detained the whole period