to the same vicious courses, slighted and abused his wife with words and blows; forsook her bed; took away her clothes, her rings and jeweis, and gave them to his mistresses; telling his wife, "He did not marry her, but her fortune, which he would spend upon these women that he lay with, because he loved them, for he never had any kindness for her All these unkindnesses his wife bore with infinite patience, in hopes to reclaim him by her modest and humble beh vicur. At length, finding he had almost consumed his whole estate, he brought two of his wheres home to save charges, lay with one of them every night, and made his wife wait u, on them at table; which she did without discovering any trouble or discontent at this more than servile employment. But the more she sought to please them, the more insolent were they, insomuch that one of them commanding her to fetch some water to wash her hands, and to kneel while she held the bason, the lady refusing so mean a submission, the whore threatened to beat her; whereupon the lady taking courage, threw the water in the whore's face; ho crying out, and the husband coming to inquire into the reason of it, she cried out, "Oh, your wife has killed me, she has killed me, revenge my blood!" and then counterfeiting death, fell upon the ground as if she had been really dead; which the husband believing, run his wife through the body wit his sword, of which wound she died immediately; upon which the whore jumped up and fell a kissing the murderer. But being shortly after apprehended, they were all three sentenced to be hanged; Villars as principal, and his two whores as accessaries, and were executed accordingly. 8. In the year 1766, one John Wil liams married a poor idiot for the sake of a sum of money that had been left her; which, when he was possessed of, he determined to shorten the life of the unhappy wife by a series of crucity, that so he might be quit of a connection which interest alone had made him contract. For this purpose he drove a strong staple into the wall of a closet, in the room where they lodged, and to this staple he daily tied her with a rope, which he drew round her middle, her hands being fastened behind with iron hand cuffs; and the little food he allowed her was laid on a shelf just within the reach of her mouth, so that if she dropped any part of it she could not recover it again. And fearing lest this treatment might not dispatch her soon enough, the barbarous villain augmented his cruelty by contracting the rope that confined her, till her toes only reached the ground; and if his daughter attempted to alleviate her misery by setting a stool for her to stand on, he used to beat her unmercifully. By this treatment the poor creature soon became a frightful skeleton, and she was so far reduced that her stomach loathed food; which, when he perceived, the artful villain released her, loosed her hand, set meat before her, and invited her to eat with the most endearing words, with a view to skreen himself from justice; but in two days after she died a miserable spectacle, with only a loose covering over her bons, of skin swarming with vermin. For this barbarous murder he was executed in Moorfields, the 19th of January, 1767, amidst a numerous populous, whose resentment the villain fearing would urge them to tear him to pieces, made him earnest with the hangman to dispach him. CHAP. VIII. Of such Wives as were unnatural to their Husbands, or evil deported towards ihm. IN Italy there grows an herb, they call it the B silisco: it is sweet-scented enough; but withal it hath this strange property, that being laid under a stone in a moist place, in a few days it produces a scorpion. Thus, though the woman, in her first creation, was intended as a help for man, the partner of his joys and cares, the sweet perfume and relish of his days throughout his whole pilgrimage: yet there are some so far degenerated from their primitive institution (though other wise of exterior beauty and perfection enough) that they have proved more intolerable than scorpions, not only tor (7.) De Serres, Hist. Fran.-(8.) Annual Reg. 1767. menting menting the life, but hasteing the death of their too indulgent husbands. 1. Joan, grandchild to Robert, King of Naples, by Charles's son, succeeded her grandfather in the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, an anno 1343; a woman of a beautiful body, and rare endowments of nature. She was first married to her cousin Andrew, a prince of royal extraction, and of a sweet and loving disposition; but he being not able to satisfy her wantonness, she kept company with lewd persons; at last she grew weary of him, complaining of his insufficiency; and caused him, in the city of Aversa, to be hung upon a beam, and strangled in the night-time, and then threw out his corpse into a garden, where it lay some days unburied. It is said that this Andrew on a day coming into the queen's chamber, and finding her twisting a thick string of silk and silver, demanded of her for what purpose she made it; she answered, "To hang you in," which she then little believed; the rather, because those who intend such mischief, use not to speak of it before-hand; but it seems she was as good as her word. 2. Bithricus, king of the West Saxons, married Ethelburga, the daughter of Offa, king of Mercia; by whom, after he had reigned seventeen years, he was poisoned and buried at Warham: upon which occasion it was ordained by the nobles, "that from thenceforth the kings' wives should not be called queens, nor suffered to sit with them in place of estate." This Ethelburga fled into France with infinite treasure; where offering a mighty sum of her gold to Charles, king of France, he put her to her choice, whether she would have him or his son to her husband, She 'chose the son, for the reason (as she said) that he was the youngest. "Then," said Charles," hadst thou chosen me, thou shouldest have had my son, but now thou shalt neither have him nor me;" and then sent her to a monastery, wherein she professed herself a nun, and became there the abbess for some years: but afterwards being found to have committed adultery with a layman, she was cast out of the monastery, and ended her life in poverty and misery. 3. Alboinus, the first king of Italy and the Lombards, having slain Cunemundus, king of the Gepida, made a drinking cup of his skull. Rosamund, the daughter of that king, he had taken to wife; and being one day very merry at Verona, forced her to drink out of that detested cup; which she so stomached, that she promised one Helmichild, a courtier," that if he would aid her in killing the king, she would give him him both herself and the kingdom of Lombardy.", This when he consented to, and performed, they were so hated, that they were constrained to fly to Ravenna, unto the protection of Longinus, who persuaded her to dispatch Helmichild out of the way, and to take him for her husband, to which she willingly agreed. Helmichild coming out of the bath, called for drink, and she gave him a strong poison, half of which when he had drank, and found by the strange operation how the matter went, he compelled her to drink the rest, and so both died together. 4. When Alexander the Great had determined to invade the Daca, where he knew Spitamenes was, who not only had revolted himself, but had also drawn divers others into the society of his rebellion, and had at some times overthrown some of Alexander's captains, there fell out one thing remarkable. The wife of Spitamenes (upon whom he extremely doted) when by her feminine flatteries she was not able to persuade her husband to make trial of the victor's clemency, and to endeavour to appease Alexander, whom he could not avoid nor escape, she set upon her busband when intoxicated with wine, who lay fast asleep, and drawing a sword that she had concealed under her garments, she cut off his head, delivered it to a servant that was a party in the fact, and, with him only in her company, as she was, with her garments besprinkled with blood, she went directly to Alexander's camp, and caused him to be informed that there was one there to inform him of something that he was concerned to know. When she was admitted, she desired the servant might come in, who showed the head of Spitamenes. When the king saw this, though he looked upon it as a con (1.) Full. Proph. Stat. 1 5. c. 2. p. 348. Bartlet Hist. of Scanderbeg, 1. 10, p. 369.—(2.) Stowe's Annals, p. 77.-(3.) Heyl. Cosmogr. p. 94. siderable siderable piece of service that a renegado and a traitor was dispatched, yet had he such a horror of the fact, that she should take away his life that had well deserved at her hands, who was her husband, and a parent of the childreu which they had betwixt them, and that considering the atrocity of the fact overweighed any pretended merit from himself, he sent her word forthwith to depart his camp, lest she should infect the Greeks with the barbarity of her example, 5. Fulvius, understanding that he was proscribed by the Triumvirate, betook himself to his wife, hoping to be hid, and some way kept private by her, in this time of his extremity. He might the rather expect her fidelity in this thing, for of a slave he made her a free woman, and received her to his bed: but he found a deadly enemy instead of a friend; for she, Suspecting that he was in love with another woman, did herself accuse and discover him to the Triumviri; by whose orde he died in a miserable manner. 6. The noble Pittacus, so famous for his valour, and as much renowned for his wisdom and justice, feasted upon a time certain of his friends, who were strangers. His wife coming in at the midst of the dinner, being angry at something else, overthrew the table, and tumbled down all the provision under foot. At which, when his guests were wonderfully abashed, Pittacus, turning to them, said: "There is not one of us all but he hath his cross, and one thing or other where with to exercise his patience; and for my own part, this is the only thing that checketh my felicity for were it not for this shrew, my wife, I were the happiest man in the world: so that of me these verses may be verified: This man, who while he walks the street, But woe is him, and not for nought; CHAP. IX. Hungary, where Danubius and Sava meet, their waters mingle no more than water and oil; and though they run sixty miles together, yet they no way incorporate; but the Danube is clear and pure as a well, while the Sava, that runs along with it, is as troubled as a street channel. After the manner of these rivers it is with some brethren; though bred up together, and near enough each other in respect of their bodies, yet their minds have been as distant from each other as the poles are; which, when opportunity hath served they have showed in the effects of an inplacable hatred. 1. Sir George Sonds, of Kent, had lately two sons, grown up to that age wherein he might have expected most comfort from them; but in the year 1655, the younger of them, named Freeman Sonds, having no apparent cause or provocation either from his father or brother, did, in a most inhuman and butcherly inanner, murder the elder, as he lay sleeping by him in his bed: he beat out his brains with a cleaver; and, although this was his mortal wound, yet, perceiving him to groan and sigh, as one approaching unto death, he stabbed him seven or eight times in and about the heart, (as the sorrowful father witnesseth in his printed narrative of the whole), and when he had finished this black and bloody tragedy, he went to his aged father, then in bed, and told him of it, rather glorying in it, than expressing any repentance for it. Being apprehended, he was presently after condemned at Maidstone assizes, and accordingly executed. 2. Eteocles was the son of Edipus, by his own mother Jocasta: their father, the king of Thebes, had ordered it, that Eteocles, and his other son Polynices, after his departure, should reign yearly by turns: But Eteccles, after his year was expired, would not suffer his brother to succeed; whereupon Polynices, being aided by Tydeus and Adrastus, made war upon his brother. They meeting together with their forces in the field, were slain by each other in the battle; their dead bodies were also burned together; when the flame parted itself, as if it seemed to declare such a deadly hatred betwixt them, that, as their minds, being Of the deep batred some have conceived against their own Brethren; and the unnatural Actions of Brothers and Sisters. SIR Henry Blunt, in his Voyage to the Levant, tells us, that at Belgrade, in (4.) Pezel. Mellific. tom. 1. p.358.-(5.) Fulgos, Ex. 1. 5. c. 3. p. 609.-(6.) Plut. Moral. in 1. de Trang. Anim. p. 153. (1) Clark's Mirte . 1. p. 404, 405 alive, alive, so neither could their bodies, being dead, agree, This their antipathy was propagated to their posterity, breaking out into many outrageous and bloody wars, Uno such ends doth the providence of God often bring an incestuous brood, that others may be instructed thereby. 3. Upon the death of Se'ymus the Second, which happened anno 1582, Amurath the Third succeeded in the Turkish empire; at his entrance upon which he caused his five brothers, Mustapha, Solyman, Abdala, Osman, and Sian er, without pity or commiseration, to be strangled in his presence, and gave orders that they should be buried with his dead father: an ordinary thing with Mahometan princes, who, to secure to themselves the empire without rivalship, stick not to pollute their hands with the blood of their nearest relations. It is said of this Amurath, when he saw the fatal bow-string put about the neck of his youn, er brother, that he was seen to weep; but it seems they were crocodile tears, for he held firm to his bloody purpose. 4. Petrus, king of Spain, having reigned some time with great cruelty, polluting his hands in the blood of his nobles; at last, his brother Henry took up arms against him, anno 1369. He had hired auxiliary forces out of France against Petrus; and having met him in the field, a bloody battle was fought, agrecable to the pertinacious hatred of the two brothers. The victory resting on the side of Henry, and his brother made prisoner; being brought before him, Petrus with a dagger wounded Henry in the face: the other endeavouring to repay it with interest, both grappled together, having thrown each other to the ground; but others coming in to the help of Henry, he quickly became the superior, and having slain his brother with many wounds, he succeeded in his kingdom. 5. Extreme was the hatred that was betwixt Bassianus and Geta, the two sons of Severus the emperor, which soon be trayed itself upon the death of their father. They could not agree about the parting of the empire, nor did they omit any means whereby they might supplant each other; they endeavoured to bribe each other's cooks and butlers to poison their masters; but when both were too watchful to be thus eircumvented, at last Bassianus grew impatient; and burning with ambition to enjoy the rule alone, he set upon his brother Geta, gave him a deadly wound, and shed his lood in the lap of Julia their mother; and having executed this villany, threw himself amongst the soldiers, and told them," hat he had with difficulty saved his life from the malice of his brother." Having parted among t them all that Severus his father had been eighteen years heaping up, he was by them confirmed in the empire. 6. Anno 1080, Boleslaus, king of Poland, having slain his brother S. Stanislaus, bishop of Cracovia, at the very altar as he was in the celebration of the mass, he suddenly fell into a frenzy, and such a degree of madness, that he laid violent hands upon himself. It is said of this king, that he grew into a vehement hatred of the bishop, his brother, upon the account of that freedom he took in reprov ing him for those horrible crimes he frequently committed. 7. Tosto and Harold, the sons of earl Godwin, falling out, Tosto secretly went into the Marches of Wales; and, near the city of Hereford, at Portaslith, where Harold had a house then in preparation to entertain the king, he slew all his brother's servants; and cutting them piecemeal into gobbets, some of their limbs he salted, and cast the rest into the vessels of mead and wine sending his brother word, "That he had furnished him with powdered meats against the king's coming thither. 8. Robert, duke of Normandy, was chosen king of Jerusalem, but refused that, in hopes to have England; but it is observed that he never prospered after. His brother Rufus got the crown; and when he was dead, Henry Beauclerk, his youngest brother ascended the throne, and conquered Normandy: he also put out the eyes of Robert, his brother, and kept him prisoner in Cardiff Castle twenty-six years; (2.) Textor Officin. 1. 5. c. 11. p. 564. Sabell. Ex. P. 3. c. 10. p. 170. Kornm, de Mirac. Mortuor. 1. 4. c. 62. p. 27.-(3.) Camerar. Oper. Subcisiv. cent. 1. c. 88. p. 408.-(4.) Lips. Monit. 1, 2 c. 14. p. 348.-(5.) Herodian, 1. 4. p. 207. Simps. Ch. Hist. 1. 2. cent. 3. p. 27. Pezel. Mellific. Histor. tom. 2. p. 208.-(6.) Gaulter. Tab. Chron. p. 628, 629.-(7.) Speed's Hist. p. 413. Chetwind Hist. Col. cent. 7. p. 206. Clark's Mir. c. 14. p. 55. where where, for grief, conceived at the putting on of a new robe, (too little for the king, and therefore sent to the duke to wear) he grew weary of his life, as disdaining to be mocked with his brother's cast-off cloaths: and cursing the time of his unfortunate nativity, refused thenceforth to take any sustenance, and starved himself to death. 9. Alphonsus Diazius, a Popish Spaniard, hearing that John Diazius, his brother, had renounced popery, and was become a professor of the reformed religion, fell into so deep a hatred of him, that, like another Cain, he slew his brother with his own hands; for which he was highly applauded by the Romanists for his heroi his brother Selymus, which he did readily in Turkish verse, upbraiding him with his horrible cruelty; and, concluding with many a bitter curse, he besought God to take a just revenge upon him. Being then strangled, his dead body was brought to Prusa. Selymus uncovered the face of it, to be certain that it was him: when, seeing this writing in his hand, he took and read it; and is said thereupon to have shed tears, notwithstanding his cruel nature and stony heart. CHAP. X. Men. cal atchievement; but he was so haunted Of the barbarous and savage Cruelty of some and hunted by the faries of his own conscience, that he desperately hanged himself at Trent, about the neck of his own mule. 10. Cleopatra, the wife of Cyricænus, having taken sanctuary at Anticch, after her husband's overthrow, her sister Gryphina, the wife of Gyrphus, most importunately slicited her death: and though Gryphus much persuaded her against it, yet she herself commanded the soldiers to dispatch her; but in a few days after the same Gryphina, falling into the hands of Cyricnus, was by hiin made a sacrifice to his wife's ghost. 11. Selymus the First, having ascended the throne of his father, sought the destruction of all his brethren; and while his brother Corcutus lay quiet in Magnetia, he secretly led an army thither to destroy him. Corcutus having notice of it, fled away with two servants; and all passages by sea bing shut up, he was glad to hide himself in a cave by the seaside, where he lived miserably upon country crabs, and other like wild froit, till, being discovered by a peasant, he was apprehended. Selymus being informed of it, sent one to strangle him, and bring his dead body to Prusa. The executioner, a captain, coming to Corcutus, in the dead time of the night, and awaking him out of his sleep, told him this beavy message, "That he was sent by his brother to strangle him." Corcutus, exceedingly troubled with this heavy news, and fetching a deep sigh, desired the captain to spare his life till he might write a few short lines unto THEODORUS Gaddaræus, who was tutor to Tiberius, the Roman emperor, observing in him, while a boy, a sanguinary nature and disposition, that lay lurking under a show of lenity and pretence of clemency, was used to call him "a lump of clay steeped and soaked in blood." His prediction of him did not fail in the event: he thought death was too light a punishment for any that displeased him. Hearing Carnulius (being in his disfavour) had cut his own throat, "Carnulius," said he, "has escaped me." To another, who begged of him that he might die quickly, "he told him, "He was not yet so much in his favour." Yet even this artist in cruelty has since been outacted by monster, more cruel than himself. 1. The island of Amboyna lies near Seran, the chief town of it hath also the same name, and is the rendezvous for the gathering and buying of cloves. The English lived in the town, under the protection of the castle, held and well manned by the Dutch. In February 1022, a Japanese soldier discoursing with the Dutch centinel of the castle, was suspectcd, tortured, and confessed divers of his countrymen contrivers with him of surprising the castle: also one Price, an Englishman, and prisoner with them, accused, other Englishmen of the factories; who were all sent for, and put to horrid torture, in this manner: first, they hoisted up the examinant by the hands with a cord, on a large door, fastening him upon (8.) Speed's Hist. p. 445-(9.) Clark's Mir. c. 14. p. 55.-10.) Trinchfield Hist. Improved, p. 110, 111.-Knowle's Turk. Hist. p. 502. two |