Free Joe, negro manumitted by his master, the latter committing suicide immediately afterward. Joe has an easy time until his wife’s master refuses to let a “free nigger” hang about his place. He consorts with “poor white folks” in order to see “Lucinda,” meeting her secretly. At length she does not come for a month to the trysting-place, and he consults a fortune-teller who shows him that her master has taken her out of the county. Still he awaits her at the appointed rendezvous many days and nights, always sure that she will come, and laughing when others doubt it. One morning his friends, the poor whites, find him there dead.—Joel Chandler Harris, Free Joe (1888).
Free´port (Sir Andrew), a London merchant, industrious, generous, and of sound good sense. He was one of the members of the hypothetical club under whose auspices the Spectator was enterprised.
Freiherr von Guttingen, having collected the poor of his neighborhood in a great barn, burnt them to death, and mocked their cries of agony. Being invaded by a swarm of mice, he shut himself up in his castle of Güttingen, in the lake of Constance; but the vermin pursued him, and devoured him alive. The castle then sank in the lake, and may still be seen there. (See Hatto.)
Freischütz (Der), a legendary German archer, in league with the devil. The devil gave him seven balls, six of which were to hit with certainty any mark he aimed at; but the seventh was to be directed according to the will of the giver.—Weber, Der Freischütz (an opera, 1822).
⁂ The libretto is by F. Kind, taken from Apel’s Gespensterbuch (or ghost book). A translation of Apel’s story may be found in De Quincey’s works.
Freron (Jean), the person bitten by a mad dog, referred to by Goldsmith in the lines:
The man recovered of the bite
The dog it was that died.
Elegy on a Mad Dog.
Un serpent mordit Jean Freron, eh bien?