Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/433

 ii s. iv. NOV. 25, 1911.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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written that Mahomet II., being in Magnesia when he heard of the death of his father, Amurath II., " instantly sprang on an Arab horse, and exclaiming, ' Let those who love me follow me,' galloped off towards the shore of the Hellespont."

The parallel is perhaps worth noting, if the sayings are authentic.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

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

" SEPTJRTURE." This mysterious word is given by Randle Holme ('Armoury,' Part II. pp. 11, 13) as a synonym of expenced, said of angels' wings. (In Part III. p. 156 he has Sepulture, probably a misprint.) In Berry's ' Encyclopaedia of Heraldry ' the word is given as a synonym of endorsed, and the limitation to the wings of angels is not mentioned. ' Parker's Glossary of Heraldry' (1894) has " Sepurture, a term applied to the wings of birds, synonymous with endorsed." Has the word been found in any earlier writer than Holme, and is anything known as to its origin ?

HENRY BRADLEY. Oxford.

ANQUETIL FAMILY. Among the inscrip- tions in the Gibraltar cemeteries transcribed by COL. G. S. PARRY I find the following (11 S. ii. 483):

" Francis Anquetil, Esq., Barrack Master, d. 18 Dec., 1836, a. 49. Erected by his Brethren of the Lodge of Friendship."

The name is certainly of French origin. Who was this Anquetil ? Was he any rela- tion to the three brothers of the name who lived in the second half of the eighteenth century : Anquetil, prior of St. Stephen of Chateau-Renard, the French historian ; Anquetil du Perron, celebrated traveller, member of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres ; and Anquetil de Brian- court, at one time in the service of the French East India Company, afterwards French Consul at Surat ? CHARLES NOUGUIER. La Valise, par Chateau-Renard, Loiret.

SPANISH TITLES GRANTED TO IRISHMEN. I should like to ask through * N. & Q.' what has become of the titles granted by the Spanish monarch Philip IV. to the Irishmen

who fought in the wars of the Netherlands 1621-65. Many of these warriors were compensated by the monarch by ennoble- ment, but definite traces are vague, not only in Dublin records, but also in Madrid, Simancas, and Valladolid. I shall be greatly obliged to any one who will tell me where authentic records on this subject may be found, with a description of the arms granted. RENE DE LAZLA.

Paris.

" SALAMANDER," A HEAVY BLOW. Benve- nuto Cellini, in his ' Autobiography,' relates how, when he was quite a boy, his father struck him a tremendous blow, in order that he might remember all his life that he had seen a salamander in the fire ; and M. Anatole France, in that ironical master- piece ' La Rotisserie de la Reine Pedauque,' has the following scene :

" . . . .un grand homme noir aborda la r6tisserie, dans une rafale de neige et de vent.

"Une Salamandre ! line Salamandre! s'ecriait- il.

" Et sans prendre garde a personne, il se pencha sur le foyer, dont il fouilla les tisons du bout de sa canne . . . . ' Une Salamandre ! Je vois une Salamandre.'

" Mon pere etait surpris et meme choqu des facons de ce visiteur.

" Que Votre Seigneurie m' excuse, dit-il, je ne vois ici qu'un mechant moine et point de Sala- mandre. Au demeurani, j'en ai peu de regret. Car, a ce que j'ai oui dire, c'est une vilaine bete, velue et cornue, avec de grandes griffes.

" Quelle erreur ! repondit 1'homme noir, les Salamandres ressemblent a des femmes, ou, pour mieux dire, a des Nymphes, et elles sont parfaite- nient belles .... II f aut etre philosophe pour voir une Salamandre, et je ne pense pas qu'il y ait des philosophes dans cette cuisine.

" Vous pourriez vous tromper, monsieur, dit I'abb6 Coignard. Je suis docteur en the"ologie, maitre es arts. Et voici Jacobus Tournebroche, mon 61eve, qui sait par cceur les sentences de Publius Syrus.

" L'inconnu tourna vers 1'abbe des yeux jaunes

"II est extremement probable que cette Salamandre est venue pour vous ou pour votre el eve . . . . souffrez que votre jeune eleve approche du foyer et dise s'il ne voit pas quelque ressemblance d'une femme au-dessus des flammes.

" En ce moment, la fumee qui montait sous la hotte de la chemin^e se recourbait avec xine grace particuliere ....

" Je ne mentis done pas tout a fait en disant que, peut-etre, je voyais quelque chose.

" A peine avais-je fait cette reponse que 1'in-

connu me frappa du poing l'6paule si rude-

ment que je pensai en avoir la clavicule bris^e.

" Mon enfant, me dit-il aussitot, d'une yoix tres douce, en me regardant d'un air de bien- veillance, j'ai du faire sur vous cette forte im- pression afin que vous n'oubliiez jamais que voue Bivez vu une Salamandre."