Chapter XII (3)

Such was the state of medicine in England at this period: of its state in Italy we are not qualified to speak; but, from an instance presently to be quoted, it would seem to have been no more advanced than it was in England. And as there was no disease for which money could not purchase some infallible remedy, so the plague, as the object of most general apprehension, was best of all suited for the impostures of those whose treasury was the credulity of other people. A reference to any collection of tracts upon this subject, published before or during the year 1665, will satisfy the reader on this head: the examples which follow have occurred during a very cursory examination of one or two volumes, from which they might easily have been multiplied. We find in ‘A Ioyfull Iewell,.. first made and published in the Italian tung, by the famous and learned Knight and Doctor M. Leonardo Fioraventie,’ such receipts as this: “Of Elixir Vitæ, and how to make it, and of his great Vertues.” It consists of forty ingredients, such as ginger, juniper, sage, rose–leaves, aloes, figs, raisins, honey, &c., an equal quantity of each. This, if it did no good, could perhaps do little harm: but when it is professed that if any use it in time of pestilence, it is impossible he should be infected, the deceit becomes a source of serious evil. Another is worse, and joins blasphemy to impudence. “A great and miraculous secret to help the pestilence, with great ease and in a short time; a remedy and secret revealed of God miraculously. When a man hath a pestilent sore, let there be made a hole in the earth, and there let him be buryed all saving the neck and head, and there let him stand xii or xiiii houres and he shall be holpen, and then take him forth: and merveyl not that I write this medicine, because the earth is our mother, and that which purifieth all things, as we see by experience that the earth taketh forth all spots in cloth, it susteineth and maketh flesh tender if we bury it v or vi hours in the earth.” Or “the water of the sea hath a marveylous remedy in it against the pestilence, if they wash them therein iiii or v houres togither, or if need require let him stand x or xii houres therein.” Truly a man would be well “holpen” by such remedies: yet this Fioraventi, a Bolognese physician and alchemist of the sixteenth century, enjoyed considerable reputation among his contemporaries. The chemists of course were not sparing in their censures of their adversaries the Galenists, and the ingenious and industrious Iatrochemist, Dr. George Thomson, makes the following observations, in which the reader may be inclined partly to join: “These, especially if they can but surreptitiously get some chymical medicines from us, will, at a hazard, try what a dry fume of gums will do, a costly pomander, a composition of figs, rue, and walnuts (a rueful medicine to trust to if all were known), Mathias’ plague water, or aqua epidemica (I wonder they forgat St. Luke’s water for mere credit’s sake), an electuary of London treacle and wood–sorrel (I am persuaded a leg of veal and green–sauce is far better), bole–armeniac (no whit better than tobacco–clay, except that ‘tis dearer and farther fetched). If these avail not, if they light upon rich families (let the poor shift for themselves), they will provide for them (taking a share with them) pearls, hyacinth–stone prepared (after their gross way), bezoar–stone of the east, unicorn’s horn (equivalent to harts–horn), lignum aloes—strange they omitted gold, but that I believe they mean to put into their own purse.”[126] The ridicule is not undeserved, when we find such articles as crab’s eyes, julap of violets, oil of amber, confection of hyacinth, and other preparations of precious stones in the materia medica of the day. Dr. Thomson, however, has his own ‘Ternion of effectual Chymical Remedies,’ with which “noble chymical preparations if any desire to be accommodated in this sad time of contagion, let them repair to the place of his abode without Aldgate, nigh the Blew–Boare Inn.” Spirit of salt and oil of sulphur appear to have been favourite remedies with this class of practitioners.

The greatest and last plague which has appeared in London first showed itself in Westminster towards the end of the year 1664. In December a three months’ frost set in, which stopped its progress, but with the spring it returned, though doubtfully, and continued through May and June with more or less severity. At the beginning of August it set in with far greater violence, and was at its height about the beginning of September, when more than twelve thousand persons died weekly. Having reached this height, it began to decrease. By the beginning of November the city began to wear a more healthy aspect, and in December people were crowding back again as fast as they before had crowded out.[127] The total number of deaths is thus given:—

Within the city of London 9,887
In Westminster 8,403
Parishes without the Walls 28,888
Neighbourhood, including Hackney, }
Islington, Lambeth, Rotherhithe,} 21,420
&c., in all 12 parishes }
———
68,598

Enough has been already said of the general appearance and course of such disorders. Instead therefore of another connected narrative, we shall only extract some of the most remarkable incidents and reflections to be found in Defoe’s and Pepys’s journals.

“The face of London was now indeed strangely altered, I mean the whole mass of buildings, city, liberties, suburbs, Westminster, Southwark, and altogether; for as to the particular part called the city, or within the walls, that was not yet much infected; but in the whole, the face of things, I say, was much altered: sorrow and sadness sat upon every face, and though some part were not overwhelmed, yet all looked deeply concerned; and as we saw it apparently coming on, so every one looked on himself and his family as in the utmost danger: were it possible to represent those times exactly to those that did not see them, and give the reader due ideas of the horror that everywhere presented itself, it must make just impressions upon their minds, and fill them with surprise. London might well be said to be all in tears; the mourners did not go about the streets indeed, for nobody put on black, or made a formal dress of mourning for their nearest friends; but the voice of mourning was truly heard in the streets; the shrieks of women and children at the windows and doors of their houses, where their nearest relations were perhaps dying, or just dead, were so frequent to be heard as we passed the streets, that it was enough to pierce the stoutest heart in the world to hear them. Tears and lamentations were seen almost in every house, especially in the first part of the visitation, for towards the latter end, men’s hearts were hardened, and death was always so much before their eyes, that they did not so much concern themselves for the loss of their friends, expecting that they themselves should be summoned the next hour.”[128]

“At the beginning of this surprising time, while the fears of the people were young, they were increased strangely by several odd accidents, which put altogether, it was really a wonder the whole body of the people did not rise as one man, and abandon their dwellings, leaving the place as a space of ground designed by Heaven for an Akeldama, doomed to be destroyed from the face of the earth, and that all that would be found in it would perish with it. I shall name but a few of these things; but sure they were so many, and so many wizards and cunning people propagating them, that I have often wondered there was any (women especially) left behind.

“In the first place, a blazing star or comet appeared for several months before the plague, as there did the year after, another, a little before the fire; the old women, and the phlegmatic hypochondriacal part of the other sex, whom I could almost call old women too, remarked, especially afterwards, though not till both those judgments were over, that those two comets passed directly over the city, and that so very near the houses, that it was plain they imported something peculiar to the city alone; and the comet before the pestilence was of a faint, dull, languid colour, and its motion very heavy, solemn, and slow; but that the comet before the fire was bright and sparkling; or as others said, flaming, and its motion swift and furious, and that accordingly one foretold a heavy judgment, slow but severe, terrible and frightful, as was the plague. But the other foretold a stroke, sudden, swift, and fiery, as was the conflagration; nay, so particular some people were, that as they looked upon that comet preceding the fire, they fancied that they not only saw it pass swiftly and fiercely, and could perceive the motion, with their eye, but even they heard it, that it made a rushing mighty noise, fierce and terrible, though at a distance, and but just perceivable.

“I saw both these stars, and I must confess, had had so much of the common notion of such things in my head, that I was apt to look upon them as the forerunners and warnings of God’s judgments, and especially, when the plague had followed the first, I yet saw another of the like kind, I could not but say, God had not yet sufficiently scourged the city.

[Medal in commemoration of the plague and fire of London. It represents the eye of God in the centre, and the two comets, one on each side; that on the right showering down pestilence upon the city. On the other side the city is represented on fire, while a violent east wind is urging the flames. The foreground is full of images of distress: a ship tossed by the waves; a man drowning; a withered tree: Death fighting with a man on horseback. The reverse of this curious piece, the history of which, when and by whom it was struck, is, we believe, unknown, is given in p. 230. Legend: “So he punishes.”]

“The apprehensions of the people were likewise strangely increased by the error of the times, in which I think the people, from what principle I cannot imagine, were more addicted to prophecies and astrological conjurations, dreams, and old wives’ tales, than ever they were before or since. Whether this unhappy temper was originally raised by the follies of some people who got money by it, that is to say, by printing predictions and prognostications, I know not: but certain it is, books frightened them terribly, such as Lilly’s Almanac, Gadbury’s Astrological Predictions, Poor Robin’s Almanac, and the like; also several pretended religious books, one entitled, ‘Come out of her, my people, lest ye be partaker of her Plagues;’ another called, ‘Fair Warning;’ another, ‘Britain’s Remembrancer,’ and many such; all or most part of which foretold, directly or covertly, the ruin of the city. Nay, some were so enthusiastically bold as to run about the streets with their oral predictions, pretending they were sent to preach to the city; and one in particular, who, like Jonah to Nineveh, cried in the streets, ‘Yet forty days, and London shall be destroyed.’ I will not be positive whether he said ‘yet forty days,’ or ‘yet a few days.’[129] Another ran about naked, except a pair of drawers about his waist, crying day and night, like a man that Josephus mentions, who cried, ‘Woe to Jerusalem!’ a little before the destruction of that city. So this poor naked creature cried, ‘O! the great and the dreadful God!’ and said no more, but repeated those words continually, with a voice and countenance full of horror, a swift pace, and nobody could ever find him to stop, or rest, or take any sustenance, at least that I could hear of. I met this poor creature several times in the streets, and would have spoken to him, but he would not enter into speech with me, or any one else, but kept on his dismal cries continually. These things terrified the people to the last degree; and especially when two or three times, as I have mentioned already, they found one or two in the bills dead of the plague at St. Giles’s.”[130]

PEPYS. June 7.—“The hottest day that ever I felt in my life. This day, much against my will, I did see in Drury–lane two or three houses marked with a red cross upon the doors, and ‘Lord have mercy upon us’ writ there, which was a sad sight to me, being the first of that kind that to my remembrance I ever saw.”

June 17.—“It struck me very deep this afternoon, going with a hackney–coach down Holborn, from the Lord Treasurer’s: the coachman I found to drive easily and easily, at last stood still, and came down hardly able to stand, and told me he was suddenly struck very sick, and almost blind, he could not see: so I light, and went into another coach with a sad heart for the poor man, and for myself also, lest he should have been struck with the plague.”

DEFOE. “I went all the first part of the time freely about the streets, though not so freely as to run myself into apparent danger, except when they dug the great pit in the churchyard of our parish of Aldgate. A terrible pit it was, and I could not resist my curiosity to go and see it; as near as I may judge, it was about forty feet in length, and about fifteen or sixteen feet broad; and at the time I first looked at it, about nine feet deep: but it was said they dug it near twenty feet deep afterwards, in one part of it, till they could go no deeper for the water; for they had, it seems, dug several large pits before this; for though the plague was long a coming to our parish, yet when it did come, there was no parish in or about London where it raged with such violence as in the parishes of Aldgate and Whitechapel.

“It was about the 10th of September that my curiosity led, or rather drove me to go and see this pit again, when there had been near four hundred people buried in it; and I was not content to see it in the day time, as I had done before, for then there would have been nothing to have seen but the loose earth; for all the bodies that were thrown in were immediately covered with earth by those they called the buriers, which at other times were called bearers; but I resolved to go in the night, and see some of them thrown in. There was a strict order to prevent people coming to those pits, and that was only to prevent infection; but after some time that order was more necessary, for people that were infected, and near their end, and delirious also, would run to those pits wrapt in blankets, or rugs, and throw themselves in, and, as they said, bury themselves. I got admittance into the churchyard by being acquainted with the sexton who attended, who, though he did not refuse me at all, yet earnestly persuaded me not to go; telling me very seriously, for he was a good religious and sensible man, that it was indeed their business and duty to venture and to run all hazards, and that in it they might hope to be preserved; but that I had no apparent call to it but my own curiosity, which, he said, he believed I would not pretend was sufficient to justify my running that hazard. I told him I had been pressed in my mind to go, and that perhaps it might be an instructing sight, and one that would not be without its uses. ‘Nay,’ said the good man, ‘if you will venture upon that score, in name of God go in, for, depend upon it, it will be a sermon to you; it may be the best you ever heard in your life. It is a speaking sight,’ said he, ‘and has a voice with it, and a loud one, to call us all to repentance;’ and with that he opened the door, and said, ‘Go if you will.’

“His discourse had shocked my resolution a little, and I stood wavering for a good while; but just at that interval I saw two links come over from the end of the Minories, and heard the bellman, and then appeared a dead–cart, as they called it, coming over the streets, so I could no longer resist my desire of seeing it, and went in.... It had in it sixteen or seventeen bodies; some were wrapt up in linen sheets, some in rugs, some little other than naked, or so loose that what covering they had fell from them in the shooting out of the cart, and they fell quite naked amongst the rest; but the matter was not much to them, nor the indecency to any one else, seeing they were all dead, and were to be huddled together into the common grave of mankind, as we may call it, for here was no difference made, but poor and rich went together; there was no other way of burials, neither was it possible there should, for coffins were not to be had for the prodigious numbers that fell in such a calamity as this.

“It was reported, by way of scandal upon the buriers, that if any corpse was delivered to them, decently wound up, as we called it then, in a winding sheet, tied over the head and feet, which some did, and which was generally of good linen—I say it was reported that the buriers were so wicked as to strip them in the cart, and carry them quite naked to the ground; but as I cannot credit any thing so vile among Christians, and at a time so filled with terrors as that was, I can only relate it, and leave it undetermined.

“Innumerable stories also went about of the cruel behaviour and practice of nurses who attended the sick, and of their hastening on the fate of those they attended in their sickness[131].... It is to be observed, that the women were in all this calamity the most rash, fearless, and desperate creatures; and as there were vast numbers that went about as nurses to tend those that were sick, they committed a great many petty thieveries in the houses where they were employed, and some of them were publicly whipped for it, when perhaps they ought rather to have been hanged for examples, for numbers of houses were robbed on these occasions; till at length the parish officers were sent to recommend nurses to the sick, and always took an account of who it was they sent, so as that they might call them to account, if the house had been abused where they were placed. But these robberies extended chiefly to wearing clothes, linen, and what rings or money they could come at, when the person died who was under their care, but not to a general plunder of the houses; and I could give you an account of one of these nurses, who, several years after, being on her death–bed, confessed with the utmost horror the robberies she had committed at the time of her being a nurse, and by which she had enriched herself to a great degree; but as for murders, I do not find that there ever was any proof of the facts, in the manner as it has been reported, except as above. They did tell me indeed of a nurse in one place that laid a wet cloth on the face of a dying patient whom she tended, and so put an end to his life, who was just expiring before; and another that smothered a young woman she was looking to when she was in a fainting fit, and would have come to herself; some that killed them by giving them one thing, some another, and some starved them by giving them nothing at all. But these stories had two marks of suspicion that always attended them, which caused me always to slight them, and to look upon them as mere stories that people continually frighted each other with. That, wherever it was that we heard it, they always placed the scene at the further end of the town opposite or most remote from where you were to hear it. In the next place, of whatsoever part you heard the story, the particulars were always the same, especially that of laying a wet double clout on a dying man’s face, and that of smothering a young gentlewoman, so that it was apparent, at least to my judgment, that there was more of tale than of truth in those things.”[132]

“I had some little obligations upon me to go to my brother’s house, which was in Coleman–street parish, and which he had left to my care, and I went at first every day, but afterwards only once or twice a week.

“In these walks I had many dismal scenes before my eyes; as particularly of persons falling dead in the streets, terrible shrieks and screechings of women, who in their agonies would throw open their chamber windows, and cry out in a dismal surprising manner. It is impossible to describe the variety of postures in which the passions of the poor people would express themselves.

“Passing through Tokenhouse–yard, in Lothbury, of a sudden a casement violently opened just over my head, and a woman gave three frightful screeches, and then cried, ‘Oh! death, death, death!’ in a most inimitable tone, and which struck me with horror and a chillness in my very blood. There was nobody to be seen in the whole street, neither did any other window open, for people had no curiosity now in any case; nor could any body help one another; so I went on to pass into Bell–alley.

Just in Bell–alley, on the right hand of the passage, there was a more terrible cry than that, though it was not so directed out at the window, but the whole family was in a terrible fright, and I could hear women and children run screaming about the rooms like distracted, when a garret–window opened, and somebody from a window the other side the alley called and asked, ‘What is the matter.’ Upon which, from the first window it was answered, ‘O Lord! my old master has hanged himself.’ The other asked again, ‘Is he quite dead?’ and the first answered, ‘Ay, ay, dead and cold.’ This person was a merchant and a deputy–alderman, and very rich. I care not to mention his name, though I knew his name too, but that would be a hardship to the family, which is now flourishing again.

“But this is but one. It is scarce credible what dreadful cases happened in particular families every day: people in the rage of the distemper, or in the torment of their swellings, which was indeed intolerable, running out of their own government, raving and distracted, and oftentimes laying violent hands upon themselves, throwing themselves out at their windows, shooting themselves, &c.; mothers murdering their own children in their lunacy; some dying of mere grief, as a passion; some of mere fright and surprise, without any infection at all; others frighted into idiotism and foolish distractions; some into despair and lunacy; others into melancholy madness.

“The pain of the swelling was in particular very violent, and to some intolerable; the physicians and surgeons may be said to have tortured many poor creatures, even to death. The swellings in some grew hard, and they applied violent drawing plasters or poultices to break them; and if these did not do, they cut and scarified them in a terrible manner. In some those swellings were made hard, partly by the force of the distemper, and partly by their being too violently drawn, and were so hard that no instrument could cut them; and then they burnt them with caustics, so that many died raving mad with the torment, and some in the very operation. In these distresses, some for want of help to hold them down in their beds, or to look to them, laid hands upon themselves as above; some broke out into the streets, perhaps naked, and would run directly down to the river, if they were not stopped by the watchmen or other officers, and plunge themselves into the water, wherever they found it.”[133]

“One of the worst days we had in the whole time, as I thought, was in the beginning of September, when indeed good people were beginning to think that God was resolved to make a full end of the people in this miserable city. This was at that time when the plague was fully come into the eastern parishes. The parish of Aldgate, if I may give my opinion, buried above 1000 a week for two weeks, though the bills did not say so many; but it surrounded me at so dismal a rate, that there was not a house in twenty uninfected. In the Minories, in Houndsditch, and in those parts of Aldgate parish about the Butcher–row, and the alleys over against me, I say in those places death reigned in every corner. Whitechapel parish was in same condition, and though much less than the parish I lived in, yet buried near 600 a week, by the bills; and in my opinion near twice as many. Whole families, and indeed whole streets of families, were swept away together, insomuch as it was frequent for neighbours to call to the bellman to go to such and such houses and fetch out the people, for that they were all dead.

“And indeed the work of removing the dead bodies by carts was now grown so very odious and dangerous, that it was complained of that the bearers did not take care to clear such houses, where all the inhabitants were dead, but that some of the bodies lay unburied, till the neighbouring families were offended with the stench, and consequently infected. And this neglect of the officers was such, that the churchwardens and constables were summoned to look after it, and even the justices of the Hamlets were obliged to venture their lives among them to quicken and encourage them; for innumerable of the bearers died of the distemper, infected by the bodies they were obliged to come so near; and had it had not been that the number of people who wanted employment, and wanted bread, as I have said before, was so great that necessity drove them to undertake any thing, and venture any thing, they would never have found people to be employed, and then the bodies of the dead would have lain above ground, and have perished and rotted in a dreadful manner.

“But the magistrates cannot be enough commended in this, that they kept such good order for the burying of the dead, that as fast as any of those they employed to carry off or bury the dead fell sick and died, as was many times the case, they immediately supplied the places with others, which, by reason of the great number of poor that was left out of business, was not hard to do. This occasioned that notwithstanding the infinite number of people which died, and were sick, almost all together, yet they were always cleared away and carried off every night, so that it was never to be said of London that the living were not able to bury the dead.

“As the desolation was greater during those terrible times, so the amazement of the people increased, and a thousand unaccountable things they would do in the violence of their fright, as others did the same in the agonies of their distemper, and this part was very affecting: some went roaring and crying, and wringing of their hands along the streets; some would go praying, and lifting up their hands to heaven, calling upon God for mercy. I cannot say, indeed, whether this was not in their distraction; but be it so, it was still an indication of a more serious mind, when they had the use of their senses, and was much better, even as it was, than the frightful yellings and cryings that every day, and especially in the evenings, were heard in some streets. I suppose the world has heard of the famous Solomon Eagle, an enthusiast: he, though not infected at all but in his head, went about denouncing of judgment upon the city in a frightful manner, sometimes quite naked, and with a pan of burning charcoal on his head. What he said, or pretended indeed, I could not learn.

[Reverse of the medal given in p. 220. Here every thing is prosperous: a corn–field on the one side, a vineyard on the other; in front are ships riding in quiet, and the withered tree has put forth leaves. The figure in front, by the serpent about his arm, seems meant for St. Paul. Legend: ‘Mere goodness.’]

“I will not say whether that clergyman was distracted or not, or whether he did it out of pure zeal for the poor people, who went every evening through the streets of Whitechapel, and with his hands lifted up, repeated that part of the liturgy of the church continually, ‘Spare us, good Lord; spare thy people whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood.’ I say I cannot speak positively of these things, because these were only the dismal objects which represented themselves to me as I looked through my chamber windows, for I seldom opened the casements, while I confined myself within doors during that most violent raging of the pestilence; when indeed many began to think, and even to say, that there would none escape; and indeed I began to think so too, and therefore kept within doors for about a fortnight, and never stirred out. But I could not hold it. Besides there were some people who, notwithstanding the danger, did not omit publicly to attend the worship of God, even in the most dangerous times. And though it is true that a great many of the clergy did shut up their churches and fled, as other people did, for the safety of their lives, yet all did not do so; some ventured to officiate, and to keep up the assemblies of the people by constant prayers, and some times sermons, or brief exhortations to repentance and reformation, and this as long as they would hear them. And dissenters did the like also, and even in the very churches, where the parish ministers were either dead or fled; nor was there any room for making any difference at such a time as this was.[134]

PEPYS, Sept. 3.—Lord’s day.—“Up and put on my silk coloured suit, very fine, and my periwig, bought a good while since, but durst not wear, because the plague was in Westminister when I bought it; and it is a wonder what will be the fashion after the plague is done as to periwigs, for nobody will dare to buy any hair for fear of the infection, that it had been cut off the heads of people dead of the plague.”

It would be a great shame to laugh at Mr. Pepys after he has done so much to amuse the world: but these, and such as these, are the most curious and important particulars concerning the pestilence recorded in his minute and extensive diary.

END OF VOL. II.

London: WILLIAM CLOWES and SON, Stamford–street.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page

John Sobieski, king of Poland, from a medal struck after the
deliverance of Vienna 5

Medal struck by the Dutch, after the defeat of the Spanish
Armada. Above is the name of Jehovah encompassed by a glory,
from which the Pope, Cardinals, and Monks are flying in grand
confusion. Motto, “Whom God will destroy with the breath of
his mouth.” 86

Another medal struck by the Dutch on the same occasion,
representing the Pope, Cardinals, and Catholic Princes, sitting
in conclave, blindfold, and trampling upon iron spikes. There
are two mottos, “It is hard to kick against the pricks.” “O the
blind minds, the blind hearts of men!” 126

Bust of Miltiades, from Visconté, Iconographie Grecque 127

Bust of Themistocles, from the same 140

Bust of Thucydides 141

Pericles. From a marble bust in the British Museum 161

Medal of Boccaccio 164

Medal of Cardinal Charles Borromeo, from a cast in the
British Museum 202

Medal struck to commemorate the Plague and Fire of London
Obverse 220
Reverse 230

The medals have been engraved from the originals in the British Museum.

INDEX

Aristides, 131, 132, 139, 140, 143.

Armada, Spanish, 112–126.

Athens, plague of, 166, 169–177.

Cid, Chronicle of, 25–28.

Cimon, policy of, 143–146.

Constantinople, plague of, 178–183.

Drageschan, battle of, 74.

Education, Athenians, 152–157.

Florence, plague of, 184–197.

Jaques, St., battle of, 64–69.

London, plague of, 218–23.

Marathon, battle of, 13–16.

Milan, plague of, 98–214.

Miltiades, 127–130.

Morgarten, battle of, 43–52.

Peloponnesian war, origin of, 158–163.

Pericles, policy of, 147–152.

Plague, historians who have described it, 164–166;
——principal recorded, 166–169;
——of Athens, 169–177;
——of Constantinople, 177–183;
——of Florence, 184–198;
——of Milan, 198–214;
——medical treatment and state of science, 214–218;
——of London, 218–231.

Reading, Aloys, 48.

Salamis, battle of, 86–103.

Siege of La Valette, 69–72;
——of Leyden, 103–112;
——methods of the ancients, their rudeness and little improvement,
until the use of gunpowder, 22–27, 29–32;
——Introduction of cannon, 38, 39;
——of Numantia, 19–22;
——of Tyre, 25–28;
——Syracuse, by Marcellus, 28–31;
——by Athenians, 177;
——of Jerusalem, 32–36;
——of La Réole, 37;
——of Ostend, 39–50;
——of Magdeburg, 50–62;
——of Zaragoza, 63–77.

Sempach, battle of, 49–54; Law of, 68.

Sobieski, John, King of Poland, 30–41.

Sophists, 153–157.

Themistocles, character and policy of, 133–140.

Thermopylæ, battle of, 55–64

Tours, battle of, 23–25.

Valette, La, siege of, 69–72.

Vienne, siege by Turks, and battle, 30–41.

Xerxes, invasion of Greece by, 5–22, 55–64.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This expression of Herodotus, that the Thracians themselves made Miltiades tyrant (_κατεστήσαντο τύραννον_), illustrates the meaning of the word: they invested him not with the power of oppressing them at pleasure, but with a form of authority for which the Grecian constitutions offered no precedent.

[2] Southey’s Chronicle of the Cid, Book I. iv.

[3] See Mitford, chap. vii. 4.

[4] The polemarch was the third in rank of the Archons, and was at the head of the military administration.

[5] A feeling of democratical equality, and the fear of making an individual too powerful, may probably have led to this division of military command at Athens. The absolute equality of the two consuls at Rome produced a similar effect when they both were present in the same army. The battle of Cannæ furnished a memorable example of its danger: after continual discord between Paulus Æmilius and Varro, the latter took advantage of his day of command to give the signal for battle, without even consulting his colleague, an old and experienced soldier: and the result was the delivery of Hannibal from a very critical position by the utter destruction of the Roman army.

[6] In earlier times this had been the post of the king (Eurip., Suppl., 657), and the polemarch, who succeeded in great measure to his military station, retained it. In the same manner, the second archon, who succeeded to the priestly functions of the king, retained the name of king, _βασιλεὺς_; and a similar instance is found in Roman history, where the title of king, _rex_, after it had become odious in political matters, was retained by the priest appointed to perform those sacred rites which the kings themselves had formerly performed.

[7] A Scythian tribe dwelling at the foot of Mount Imaus, on the confines of Thibet.

[8] Ἄφλαστα, apparently the ornamental finishing of the stern.

[9] For the topography of Marathon, the reader may consult Dr. Clarke’s Travels, and Colonel Leake’s paper on the Demi of Attica, with advantage. The flying Persians appear to have been entangled and stopped by a narrow pass, formed by a precipitous hill on one side, and a deep morass on the other. Hence this disproportionate slaughter.

[10] Lib. i. 32. Herod. lib. vi. c. 105, 120.

[11] Thucyd., ii. 34.

[12] Eubœa is long and very narrow, especially in the southern part, where Eretria was.

[13] Plato, Menexenus, § 8, 9, 10.

[14] This battle is usually so called, though it is said to have been fought near Poitiers. The exact locality is by no means certain.

[15] Croniques de St. Denys, liv. v. 26.

[16] Preface to the Chronicle of the Cid.

[17] Introduction to Chronicle of the Cid.

[18] A much more spirited and somewhat different account of the close of the battle is given from Salvandy, Histoire de Pologne, in the Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 14. We quote from the Review, not having been able to procure the original.

“Five o’clock P.M. had sounded, and Sobieski had given up for the day all hope of the grand struggle, when the provoking composure of Kara Mustapha, whom he espied in a splendid tent tranquilly taking coffee with his two sons, roused him to such a pitch that he instantly gave orders for a general assault. It was made simultaneously on the wings and centre. He made towards the Pacha’s tent, bearing down all opposition, and repeating with a loud voice, ‘Non nobis, non nobis, Domine Exercitium, sed nomini tuo da gloriam!’ ‘Not unto us, Lord God of Hosts, not unto us, but unto thy name give the praise!’ He was soon recognised by Tartar and Cossack, who had so often beheld him blazing in the view of the Polish chivalry; they drew back, while his name rapidly passed from one extremity to the other of the Ottoman lines, to the dismay of those who had refused to believe him present. ‘Allah!’ said the Tartar Khan, ‘but the wizard(a) is with them sure enough!’ At that moment the hussars, raising their national cry of ‘God for Poland!’ cleared a ditch which would long have arrested the infantry, and dashed into the deep ranks of the enemy. They were a gallant band; their appearance almost justified the saying of one of their kings, ‘that if the sky itself were to fall, they would bear it up on the points of their lances.’ The shock was rude, and for some minutes dreadful; but the valour of the Poles, still more the reputation of their leader, and more than all, the finger of God, routed these immense hosts; they gave way on every side, the Khan was borne along with the stream to the tent of the now despairing Vizir. ‘Canst not thou help me?’ said Kara Mustapha to the brave Tartar, ‘then I am lost indeed!’ ‘The Polish king is there!’ replied the other, ‘I know him well. Did I not tell thee that all we had to do was to get away as quick as possible?’”—_Foreign Quarterly Review_, No. xiv. p. 511. (a) The name given him by the Tartars, after a series of extraordinary victories had fully impressed them with a belief in his supernatural powers.

[19] Histoire de Jean Sobieski, par l’Abbé Coyer, liv. vi.

[20] Foreign Quarterly Review, No. xiv. Lettres du Roi de Pologne, Jean Sobieski, à la Reine Marie Casimire, pendant la Campagne de Vienne; par N. A. de Salvandy.

[21] “Mon frère, je suis bien aise de vous avoir rendu ce petit service.”

[22] Histoire de Jean Sobieski, par l’Abbé Coyer, liv. vi.

[23] Foreign Quarterly, No. xiv. p. 517.

[24] This observation does not apply to Britain. The English archery were celebrated long before this period: they however were merely auxiliary, and were always supported by a strong body of men–at–arms. The strength of a Scottish army consisted of pikemen, who, when formed in close order, generally circular, often resisted the utmost efforts of the English cavalry. The cause of this deviation from the general usage was probably the poverty of the nation; the nobility could not afford to maintain large bodies of horsemen. We may observe that though Wallace was a knight, he appears always to have fought on foot; at least we have met with no passage, either in the Chronicles or in Blind Harry, which represents him mounted. Bruce, on the other hand, was an adept in the arms and exercises of chivalry, and ranked, by the confession of the English, as the third best knight in Europe, though far inferior to Wallace in personal strength.

[25] The same sort of instruments are still worn, especially in traversing the glaciers, and called crampons.

[26] Vitodurani Chronicon.

[27] Cimon, son of Miltiades, after having long conducted the policy of Athens, was banished owing to the jealousy of his countrymen, it being supposed that he was unduly attached to the Spartan interest. Previous to the battle of Tanagra, fought in Bœotia, between the Lacedæmonians and Athenians, he came to the camp of the latter, and requested permission to serve with the men of his tribe. This was refused, his enemies asserting that he wished to sow discord in the army, and he was ordered to quit the camp. Before his departure he requested Euthippus and others, his friends, who had shared with him the odium of being too well inclined to the cause of Sparta, to signalize their zeal and courage in the ensuing battle, and refute, by their actions, the stigma cast upon them. These men, to the number of a hundred, ranged themselves round Cimon’s armour, which they erected as their standard, and fell valiantly to a man by each other’s side, leaving to the Athenians much regret and repentance that they had wrongfully accused them.—_Plut._, _Vit. Cimon._

[28] Simond’s Switzerland, vol. ii. chap, xxxix.

[29] Wordsworth.

[30] Planta, History of the Helvetic Confederacy. We have taken the liberty of making a few alterations in the text, to bring it nearer to the great work of Müller, of which this passage is a direct, but rather a free translation.

[31] Those who have travelled from Conway to Bangor since the new road was cut, will recollect a spot closely resembling Thermopylæ. The grandeur of the pass, however, is much injured by the change, and we strongly recommend all who are not particular about their horses’ knees or their own necks to take the old road.

[32] The whole force of Platæa served on board the Athenian fleet.

[33] Lib. x. 20.

[34] Plutarch, himself a Bœotian, is highly indignant at this statement, and also at the former, that the Thebans were detained as hostages. It must be owned that there is something wanting in explanation, since it is not clear how they could have been made to fight, if disinclined; but it seems equally clear that they were very deficient in that ardour which animated the Spartans and Thespians, and therefore cannot be supposed to have remained quite voluntarily.

[35] This speech is given by Herodotus to another Spartan, Dieneces, whom he mentions as famous for his smart sayings. The second is spurious, if we reject Plutarch’s assertion that the battle was fought by night.

[36] The epitaph is simple, and therefore in good taste; but we are bound to expose the braggart spirit which takes no notice of the Thespians and Locrians, who joined the Peloponnesians, not with a paltry quota, but with their whole force. We may also observe that national vanity has been further tampering with the numbers. Herodotus reckons Xerxes’ land force to consist of 2,100,000 men, and adds 541,610 for the fleet, making a total of 2,641,610 combatants. The camp–followers of various sorts he supposes may have amounted to an equal number. Incredible as it appears, his account is so particular that it has evidently been founded upon numerical data of some sort: it is hardly possible to estimate the amount of exaggeration and misstatement.

[37] Planta, Helv. Confed., book ii. cap. 2.

[38] Planta, Hist. Helvetic Confederacy.

[39] Vertot.

[40] In ancient Greece the shield served as a bier, to convey home the corpse of its slain owner. To return without it was universally considered disgraceful. “I have frequently seen these inscriptions on Greek standards, particularly the last: the direction was literally followed, for the body of the standard–bearer, who died defending it, was wrapped in it as a shroud, and so borne to the grave, and buried in it.”—_Walsh’s Journey over–land from Constantinople_, p. 218.

[41] Walsh, Journey over–land from Constantinople, p. 222; Hist. des Evénemens de la Grèce, par M. Raffenel.

[42] Trick.

[43] Twenty thousand, according to the Cronique de St. Denys.

[44] June 16

[45] Mitford, chap. viii., sect. 4.

[46] All Grecian colonies held the metropolis, or mother city, whence they were derived, in deep veneration. The Ionian states were founded by a great migration from Attica, and therefore looked up to the Athenians as the head of their tribe.

[47] A similar event is related to have occurred at Thebes, before the battle of Leuctra.

[48] Herod. viii. 37 and 38.

[49] History of Greece, p. 166.

[50] Herod. viii. 60, 62.

[51] Æacus, son of Jupiter and Ægina, was king of the island to which he gave his mother’s name. From him sprung Peleus and Telamon, with their descendants Achilles, Pyrrhus, Ajax, &c.

[52] Eleusis was famed for the celebration of mysteries, as they were called; which consisted in leading the aspirant through various terrific scenes and representations; after which, if his courage remained unshaken, he was instructed in a purer and more exalted system of religion than was openly taught in Greece. Secrecy on the part of the initiated was most strictly enforced. The immortality of the soul appears to have been the leading doctrine inculcated in these ceremonies; which seem traceable to the earliest periods of Grecian history, and were probably derived from Egypt. The initiated went yearly in solemn procession from Athens to Eleusis, and chaunted on these occasions the hymns alluded to.

[53] The correspondence between the above story and the following Spanish legend is singularly close.—“The night before the battle was fought at the Navas de Tolosa, in the dead of the night a mighty sound was heard in the whole city of Leon, as if it had been the tramp of a whole army passing through: and it went on to the royal monastery of St. Isidro, and there was great knocking at the gate thereof; and they called to a priest who was keeping vigil in the church, and told him that the captains of the army which he heard were the Cid Ruy Diaz, and Count Ferran Gonzalez; and that they came to call up King Don Fernando the Great, who lay buried in that church, that he might go with them to deliver Spain. And on the morrow that great battle of the Navas de Tolosa was fought, wherein 60,000 of the unbelievers were slain, which was one of the greatest and noblest battles ever won over the Moors.”—Chronicle of Cid, xi. 21. It occurred A.D. 1212.

[54] See Col. Leake on the Attic Demi.

[55] In the Persæ, a tragedy written to celebrate the overthrow of Xerxes, and containing a magnificent description of the battle of Salamis, of which the poet was an eye–witness, having served in all the brilliant actions of the Persian war, from Marathon to Platæa. The passage is too long for the whole to be inserted, but the description of the first onset of the Greeks may furnish a specimen of its character.

“But when the white–horsed morn o’er all the earth
Shed her fair splendour, from the Grecian fleet
A mighty sound rose tuneably, to wake
The sleeping Echo, which returned a loud
Heart–cheering answer from the island rock.
Confused the Persians stood; for not for flight
The Greeks rang forth that lofty battle–shout,
But hurrying on rejoicing to the fight
With high–souled valour. Then the trumpet’s clang
Kindled the battle; then the word was given,
And the quick oars with one united stroke
Dashed into spray the salt resounding surge,
And all bore down in sight. The right wing led
First, in fair order; the main armament
Pressed close behind, and all at once sent forth
A mighty shout; ‘On, children of the Greeks,
Set free your country, free your sons, your wives,
The temples of your country’s gods, the tombs
Of your forefathers—this day fights for all.’”

[56] Frontinus, Strategematicon, lib. I. ii. 10. Frontinus wrote towards the end of the first century of the Christian era, and the story, as far as we know, is not noticed earlier. It may therefore very probably be false.

[57] Vasæus, Hispaniæ Chronicon.

[58] Herod., viii. c. 140–144.

[59] The citizens replied to a summons to surrender, that they would not lack food, while their left arms remained, but feed on them, and fight for liberty with their right. Strada, de Bello Belgico, lib. viii. Vaunts of this kind are dangerous: the Leydenists, however, did no discredit to theirs. It was a maxim of the Maréchal de Grammout, that a governor who began by making a great to–do, and burnt his suburbs to make a brilliant defence, generally ended by making a very bad one. See the Mémoires de Grammont, chap, viii., where there is a capital story of the gallant defence of Lerida, by Don Gregorio Brice, bearing upon this point.

[60] Strada says, with an expression of incredulity however, that by means of this inundation vessels came over–land to Leyden from a distance of forty miles.

[61] The Dutch annoyed the Spaniards much with sharp hooks fastened to poles or ropes, by which they drew up the Spaniards into their shipping. One Peter Borgia was caught up with four hooks into a vessel holding six or seven men, and supposed to be mortally hurt: but presently, while they were deeply engaged in fishing for more men, he caught up a battle–axe, and set on them from behind with such fury, that he killed three, and frightened the rest overboard, and thus carried off to the Spanish camp a vessel laden with provisions.—_Strada_, BELL. BELG. lib. viii.

[62] Bentivoglio, Hist. of Wars in Flanders, Englished by Henry Earl of Monmouth, 1698.

[63] Watson’s Hist. of Philip II.

[64] Corunna.

[65] This is the classification of the provinces as given by Charnock.

[66] This fleet of Semiramis is probably about as real as Shakspere’s seacoast of Bohemia. What the amount of Cleopatra’s fleet might be we do not know; but at Actium she had only 60 ships. In the last example Stow is within bounds. Froissart says that 1287 ships were prepared on this occasion. What sort of cock–boats they were is another question.

[67] Draws up for battle.

[68] Robert Bruce was deceived by a similar accident. Having taken possession of Arran during his long struggle against the power of England, he meditated a descent upon the opposite country of Carrick, in Ayrshire, his own inheritance. Being ignorant of the strength and situation of the English, he despatched a trusty emissary, with orders to kindle a beacon fire, if he found that a descent was practicable. A brilliant light was seen on the appointed eve, but on Bruce’s landing, his emissary met him in much alarm, with news that the English were quartered in great strength at Turnberry Castle, his maternal inheritance; and that he knew not how, or by whom, the beacon fire had been lighted. Bruce however persevered in his enterprise and took the castle. It was long believed, and perhaps is so still, that the signal was supernatural, and that it regularly appeared on the anniversary of the Bruce’s landing on his native shore. The spot on which it was seen has been called the Bogle’s Brae, beyond the memory of man.

[69] We may repeat what has been before said, that these computations are merely approximations to expressing the value of the ancient money in modern denominations, without reference to the intrinsic value of the precious metals in Greece.

[70] Mitford, chap. vii. 5

[71] Herod. ix. 27.—He says “the Athenians answered.” Plutarch ascribes all the merit of it to Aristides, which is suitable both to his character and the rank he held.

[72] Plut., Themist.

[73] Mitford, chap. xi. 1.

[74] This fixes the date of these events to 460. Clinton.

[75] Thucyd. i. 137, 38.

[76] Library of Useful Knowledge: Greece, p. 46.

[77] We cannot with propriety use either of the terms judges or jurymen; the dicasts were both judge and jury.

[78] Plutarch, Pericles.

[79] Plutarch, North.

[80] Plutarch, Pericles: North.

[81] Library of Useful Knowledge: Hist. of Greece, p. 50.

[82] See the Preliminary Discourse to Mitchell’s Aristophanes, note, p. liv. xv.

[83] Mitchell, p. lviii.

[84] Mitchell, p. lxxv.

[85] Mitchell, p. lxxvii. lxxxi.

[86] Thucyd. i. 143.

[87] Thucyd. i. 22.

[88] Thucyd. ii. 14.

[89] See Dr. Arnold’s note, Thucyd. ii. 17.

[90] Thucyd. ii. 17.

[91] _κτῆμα ἐς ἀεὶ_, i. 22.

[92] Lib. vi.

[93] Persic. lib. ii.

[94] Kircher, Scrutinium de Peste. He quotes Diodorus (without reference), and Orosius, book v., as his authorities: the passage in Diodorus we have not been able to find.