Page:Notes and Queries - Series 1 - Volume 6.djvu/78

 to the Histoire Littéraire de la France, tome x. page 450., shows the continuance of this policy, and that whilst the Church condemned, it still employed the ordeal in the twelfth century:

"Un fameux voleur nommé Ansel, ayant pris des croix, des calices d'or, porta son vol chez un marchand de Soissons pour le lui vendre, et lui fit promettre avec serment qu'il ne le déclareroit point. Le marchand ayant ensuite entendu prononcer l'excommunication dans l'église de Soissons contre les complices de ce vol, vint à Laon et découvrit la chose au clergé. Ansel nie le fait: le marchand propose de se battre pour en décider. Ansel l'accepte, et tue le marchand. Il faut, dit sur cela Guibert Abbé de Nogent, ou, que le marchand ait mal fait de découvrir un secret qu'il avait promis avec serment de garder, ou, ce qui est beaucoup plus vrai, que la loi de se battre pour décider de l'innocence et de la vérité est injuste. Car il est certain, ajoute-t-il, qu'il n'y a aucune canon qui autorise une telle loi."

Nevertheless, it was employed in the case of some Paulician heretics, in the diocese of Soissons. Clementius and Evrard were examined &mdash;

"Mais l'évêque ne pouvant tirer la confession de leurs erreurs, et les temoins étant absens, il les condamna au jugement de l'eau exorcisée. Le prélat dit le messe, à laquelle il communia les accusés, en disant: Que le corps et le sang de notre Seigneur soit ajourd'hui une épreuve pour vous!"

Clementius was thrown in; but &mdash;

"Loin d'aller au fonds de l'eau, il surnagea comme un roseau, et fut tenu pour convaincu!"

I was assured a miracle of this description was lately witnessed in the person of a very fat lady, who floated on the surface of the National Bath at Holborn, in spite of the repeated efforts of the bath-woman to keep her down. Clementius, unfortunately, only fulfilled the proverb "of falling out of the fire-pan into the fire." Whilst the bishop hesitated as to his orthodoxy, the mob determined that question, broke into the prison, and burnt him and his brother. The ordeal died away as civilisation spread and legal institutions were established. It has been said, indeed, it was abolished in England in the 3rd of Henry III., 1219, by an ordinance of the King in Council, as given in Rymer, vol. i. p. 228. This seems, however, an "ad interim" order, made because that the ordeal of fire and water was condemned by the Church. I may add, that in the ''Bibl. Max. Patrum, tome xiii., two very interesting tracts by S. Agobard will be found; one, p. 429., "Adversus legem Gundobaldi;" the other at p. 476., contrà "Judicium Dei;" upon which J. Grimm, Deutsche Rechts Alterthümer'', vol. ii. p. 909., should be consulted.

Athenæum.

I beg to send you a few odds and ends in illustration of what seems to be an inevitable consequence of writing poetry, viz. unconscious imitation:

1. Pope's line, in his Essay on Man:

"What thin partitions sense from thought divide!"

is merely a verbal echo of Dryden's line in his Absalom and Achitophel:

"And thin partitions do their bounds divide."

2. Milton's expression of orient pearl, at the beginning of the second book of Paradise Lost, is probably taken from Shakspeare, Richard III., Act IV. Sc. 4.:

I have never seen this resemblance noted.

3. And while I am on the subject of tears, I will mention a similarity between Tennyson and Milton. In the Miller's Daughter we have:

"And dews that would have fallen in tears I kiss'd away before they fell."

Very pretty, no doubt, but to my mind evidently suggested by a most exquisite passage in the fifth book of the Paradise Lost, which is in every one's mouth:

4. What a wholesale imitation of Thomson's Castle of Indolence do we find in Campbell's Gertrude of Wyoming. Thus, Gertrude of Wyoming, Part II. St. .:

"But stock-doves plaining through its gloom profound."

Evidently imitated from Castle of Indolence, Cant. I. St. .:

"Or stock-doves plain amid the forest deep."

Again, Gertrude of Wyoming, Part II. St. .:

Which is very similar to Castle of Indolence, Cant I. St. .:

"As loose on flow'ry beds all languishingly lay."

With your permission, I will send you a few Notes on Milton's Lycidas, which appear to me to be worthy of attention.

Birmingham.

Northumberland Tradition.&mdash;Joaney or Johnny Reed, the parish clerk of a village near Newcastle, was returning home one evening, and in passing a gate by the roadside marvelled much to see nine cats about it. His wonder was changed to horror