Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/270

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. m. APRIL s, m

of ; that Africa would be civilized ; that America would spend its gold and silver in great undertakings, magnificent structures, and wars ; and that its commerce would invade Europe, as that of the Greek colonies invaded Greece.

Comparing the date of the capture of Jamaica with that of the death of Sir Thomas Browne, I should place the prophecy not much earlier or later than 1670. Parts of it have been curiously fulfilled, and it deserves to be made more accessible than heretofore. RICHARD H. THORNTON.

Portland, Oregon.

D'AULNOY AND THE MICROPHONE. There is, I believe, a scientific instrument called a microphone, by which we may hear a fly walking, or the sap circulating in the stern of a tree. In D'Aulnoy's ' Belle-Belle ' occurs the following passage :

"II apercut tin homme dedans, qui etait couch6

sur le cote J'ai besoin de quelques simples, et

j'e"coute 1'herbe qui va sortir, pour voir s'il n'y en aura point de celles qu'il me faut. Quoi ! dit le chevalier, vous avez Tome assez subtile pour en- tendre 1'herbe sous la terre, et pour deviner celle qui va paroitre ? "

Thus in Fine-oreille that pleasing writer the Comtesse d'Aulnoy was a prophetess without knowing it, and shadowed forth the microphone one hundred years before its invention. THOMAS AULD.

Belfast.

[A servant who can hear the grass grow is familiar in folk-lore stories.]

HUMPHREY, DUKE OF GLOUCESTER. The death of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, has always remained a mystery to historians. Humphrey was arraigned for high treason before the Parliament held at Bury St. Ed- munds in February, 1447, but on the morn- ing of the day appointed for his trial he was found dead in his bed. Henry VI. and his young queen Margaret attended the sitting, and upon the announcement of the death the queen turned deadly pale. No marks of violence or traces of unnatural death were to be found, but great suspicion of foul play existed in the minds of all.

In 1860 the dwelling known as the Abbey Ruins at Bury St. Edmunds was under repair, and one day whilst the carpenter was at dinner one of the inmates discovered, en- closed in a cavity in the wall, a metal box containing a beautifully illuminated old manuscript. The writer stated that he was a very aged monk who had sworn not to reveal the secret of the murder in his life- time, but determined to write it down for

posterity. It appears that in the middle of the fifteenth century there existed at Bury a religious establishment for women called the Priory. One of the nuns was Maude Carew, who had retired for no apparent reason from the world she loved so well. She had travelled with her f ather,and whilst at Provence ( whi ther he had gone to ask the hand of Margaret for Henry) had met Sir Roger Drury, an astro- loger and man of science, who afterwards entered the monastery at Bury as Father Bernard, pursuing his labours as an alchemist. The Duke of Gloucester had given orders that Father Bernard, being a magician, should be burnt at the stake. Maude Carew secretly loved Father Bernard, and, with a view of saving his life, appealed to the queen. Mar- garet hated the duke for the power he held, and suggested that Father Bernard's life could only be saved by compassing the death of the duke, who, if acquitted (as he was sure to be) on the morrow, would certainly emphasize the fact by seeing to the early fulfilment of his orders. At night, after a long con- sultation, Maude, instructed by Cardinal Beaufort, scattered a few grains of a deadly poison (which left no trace) upon the face of the duke whilst he slept, and was returning from the scene of her crime by means of the staircase when her light was mys- teriously extinguished and she was grasped by the hand of Father Bernard, who, taking her into his cell, containing his phials, books, charts, crucibles, and furnace, extracted from her a confession of her guilt, and that her motive for the deed was to save his life. The cardinal had carefully provided against treachery, knowing that the powerful drug she held in her hand would as certainly kill her as the duke, although its effect would be slower.

Father Bernard warned Maude that ages of penance and purgatory must atone for her crime, around the scene of which her spirit would restlessly wander, maybe for centuries to come. Then, declaring that she would help- lessly witness the downfall of the splendid abbey, and the conversion of its ruins into a dwelling - house, he led her back towards the chapel, and by the time she reached the back of the altar she succumbed to the effects of the poison. He placed her in front of the altar, where she was found later on by the nuns, who attributed her death to natural causes whilst engaged in private devotion. Father Bernard told the story to the aged monk, who mentions that ever since that awful night the sound of heavy foot- steps had been heard by the monks one hour before midnight :