[5.] “Lazaretto.” A pest-house or hospital for the reception of the sick, particularly for those affected with contagious distempers.
[6.] “Bactrian nomads.” Bactria is a country of Central Asia. A great part of it is made up of stretches of barren and drifting sands, so that the inhabitants are obliged to resort to the nomadic style of life. It was subjugated by Alexander the Great, but afterward became independent. Its modern history is not important.
[7.] “Titus Oates.” An Englishman who in the reign of Charles II. communicated the details of a pretended plot, “the figment of his own brain,” in which were revealed a rising of the Catholic party, a general massacre of the Protestants, the burning of London, and the assassination of the king. Several incidents seemed to corroborate the monstrous assertion, and it was universally believed. All London went wild with fear and rage, and at one time a massacre of the Roman Catholics seemed likely to occur in anticipation of the one the Protestants feared. Many of the Catholics were arrested, tried and condemned to meet the death of traitors at the block. On the accession of James II., Oates was tried, sentenced to be pilloried, publicly whipped, and afterward imprisoned for life. When William III. came to the throne he was pardoned, and was no more heard of. He died in obscurity seventeen years later, in 1705, at the age of seventy-six.
[8.] “Jack Sheppard.” (1701-1724.) He was noted for twice escaping from prison at Newgate, whither he was sent for taking part in the revolution against the king, George I. He was hung at Tyburn.
[9.] “Absinthe.”—A cordial of brandy flavored with wormwood.
SUNDAY READINGS.
[1.] “St. Augustine.” (354-430.) One of the fathers of the Christian church. He was born at Tagaste, in Africa. He was sent to Carthage to be educated, and there plunged into the frightful abyss of corruptions which marked that wicked city. In his “Confessions” he describes his life at this time, and does not seek to excuse himself. At the age of thirty-three years he embraced the Christian religion and was baptized by Ambrose. His conversion from his errors was complete and permanent. Monica, his mother, who through all these years had been praying for her son, died shortly after, feeling that she could depart in peace, as her eyes had seen his salvation. He wrote with great zeal and voluminously against all the sects which the church held to be heretical.
[2.] “Bourdaloue,” Louis. (1632-1704.) A most eloquent French preacher. Louis XIV. was an attendant upon his ministry, and on many different occasions invited him to preach the festival sermons before the court of Versailles. He was renowned for the solid dignity of his thought and his fervid religious eloquence.