Notes and Queries, Number 66, February 1, 1851

As I am upon the subject of judicial horrors, I would ask, whether any of your correspondents can supply me with a reference to the case of a woman executed, I think in Paris, and, if my recollection serves, for a systematic series of infanticides.

She was put to death by being suspended over a fire in an iron cage, in which a number of wild cats were shut up with her.

I read the story many years ago, and for some time have been vainly endeavouring to recover it.

    J. S.

Torn by Horses (Vol. ii., p. 522.).—This cruel mode of execution was practised both in antiquity and the middle ages. Livy, speaking of Tullus Hostilius, says:—

"Exinde, duabus admotis quadrigis, in currus earum distentum illigat Mettum; deinde in diversum iter equi concitati, lacerum in utroque curru corpus, qua inhæserant vinculis membra, portantes. Avertere omnes a tantâ fœdidate spectaculi oculos."—L. i., c. 28.

Livy adds, that this was the first and last example of so savage a punishment among the Romans. The punishment, however, must have been well-known in antiquity, as it is alluded to by Seneca among the tortures which accompanied death.

"Cogita hoc loco carcerem, et cruces, et equleos, et uncum; et adactum per medium hominem, qui per os emergat, stipitem; et distracta in diversum actis curribus membra."—Epist. xiv. 4.

Grimm (Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer, p. 692.) quotes the following instance of this punishment from Gregory of Tours, Hist. France, iii. 7.:

"Puellas crudelinece interfecerunt ita ut ligatis brachiis super equorum cervicibus, ipsique acerrimo moti stimulo per diversa petentes diversas in partes feminas diviserunt"

He adds that it occurs frequently in the legends of the Carolingian period. Thus Turpin, c. 26., describes as follows the punishment of the traitor Gannalon:—

"Jussit illum Carolus quatuor equis ferocissimis totius exercitus alligari, et super eos quatuor sessores agitantes contra quatuor plagas cœli, et sic dignâ morte discerptus interiit."

Almost all cruel punishments have been used in the East, and it is not improbable that execution by means of horses may be mentioned in some oriental narrative.

    L.

The Conquest (Vol. ii., p. 440.).—In Cambria Triumphans, by Percy Enderbie, at p. 283, will be found a copy of a deed, the conclusion of which runs thus:—

"Sigilla nostra apposuimus in Castro nostro de Burgavenny vicessimo secundo die Julii, anno regni Regis Henrici sexti, post Conquestum vicessimo septimo."

The word is here used for the accession of the King.

    S. K.

Mayors—their correct Prefix (Vol. i., p. 380.).—Since propounding my Query in Vol. i., p. 380., relative to this subject, I have to inform your readers, that I have been favoured with the opinion of gentlemen very high in official authority on all points connected with heraldry and the rules of precedence; which is, that the proper style of the mayor of a borough is "the worshipful;" and they are further of opinion, that there can be no ground for styling the mayor of a city "the right worshipful."

    J.

True Blue (Vol. iii., p. 27.).—On the origin of this expression, I must claim the right to dissent from your correspondent G. F. G., who appears to have fallen into the error of confining a form of very wide application to one particular case, in which he discovers a trifling coincidence of fact. The connexion of the colour blue with truth is of very ancient date, of which the following may for the present suffice as an example:—

"And by hire beddes hed she made a mew
And covered it with velouettes blew,
In signe of trouth, that is in woman sene."

    Chaucer, Squiere's Tale.
Blue, in the early practice of the tinctorial art, appears to have been the most humble of the colours in use, and the least affected by any external influence; and, down to the present day, if certain tints of recent invention be excepted, the same character may be claimed for it. What then more natural, than that it should be taken as the type of immutability, or that every party, political or religious, should in turn assume it as the badge of honesty of purpose, and of firm adherence to their principles?

    F. S. Q.

Modum Promissionis (Vol. ii., pp. 279, 347, 468.).—This phrase is perhaps connected with the promissivus modus, i.e. tempus promissivum or futurum of Diomedes and other mediæval grammarians.

    T. J.

Fronte capillatâ, &c. (Vol. iii., pp. 8. 43.).—The representation of "Occasio," or "Opportunity," with hair in front, and bald behind, is far more ancient than the drama referred to by your correspondent G. A. S.

In the Anthologia (Brunck's edition, vol. ii. p. 49.) the following beautiful epigram is the 13th by Posidippus:—

"Ἐις Ἄγαλμα τοῦ Καιροῦ.
Τίς, πόθεν ὁ πλάστης; Σικυώνιος. Οὔνομα δὴ τίς;
Λύσιππος. Σὺ δὲ, τίς; Καιρὸς ὁ πανδαμάτωρ.
Τίπτε δ' ἐπ' ἄκρα βέβηκας; Ἀεὶ τροχάω. Τί δὲ ταρσοὺς
Ποσσὶν ἔχεις διφυεῖς; Ἵπταμ' ὑπηνέμιος.
Χειρὶ δὲ δεξιτερῇ τί φέρεις ξυρόν; Ἄνδρασι δεῖγμα
Ὧς ἀκμῆς πάσης ὀξύτερος τελέθω.
Ἡ δὲ κόμη, τί κατ' ὄψιν; Ὑπαντιάσαντι λαβέσθαι,
Νὴ Δία. Ταξόπιθεν πρὸς τί φαλακρὰ πέλει;
Τὸν γὰρ ἅπαξ πτηνοῖσι παραθρέξαντά με ποσσὶν
Οὔ τις ἔυ' ἱμείρων δράξεται ἐξόπιθεν.
Τούνεχ' ὁ τεχνίτης σε διέπλασεν; Εἵνεκεν ὑμέων,
Ξεῖνε, καὶ ἐν προθύροις θῆκε δικασκαλίην."

The same epigram, with an inconsiderable alteration, is given in Bosch's Anthologia Græca, vol. ii. p. 478., with a close Latin translation by Grotius.

The following English version of the Greek is as nearly literal as the idioms of the two languages will allow.

"Who is the sculptor, say, and whence?
From Sicyon. What is he
By name? Lysippus. Who art thou?
I am Opportunity.

"Why is thy step so high and light?
I am running all the day.
Why on each foot hast thou a wing?
I fly with the winds away.

"Why is a razor in thy hand?
More keen my edge is set.
Why hast thou hair upon thy brow?
To seize me by, when met.

"Why is thy head then bald behind?
Because men wish in vain,
When I have run past on wingèd feet
To catch me e'er again.

"Why did the artist form thee so?
To place me in this hall,