Pengwern (The Torch of), prince Gwenwyn of Powys-land.—Sir W. Scott, The Betrothed (time, Henry II.).
Pengwinion (Mr.), from Cornwall; a Jacobite conspirator with Mr. Redgauntlet.—Sir W. Scott, Redgauntlet (time, George III.).
Peninsular War (The), the war carried on by Sir Arthur Wellesley against Napoleon in Portugal and Spain (1808-1814).
Southey wrote a History of the Peninsular War (1822-32).
Penitents of Love (Fraternity of the), an institution established in Languedoc, in the thirteenth century, consisting of knights and esquires, dames and damsels, whose object was to prove the excess of their love by bearing, with invincible constancy, the extremes of heat and cold. They passed the greater part of the day abroad, wandering about from castle to castle, wherever they were summoned by the inviolable duties of love and gallantry; so that many of these devotees perished by the inclemency of the weather, and received the crown of martyrdom to their profession.—See Warton, History of English Poetry (1781).
Pen´lake (Richard), a cheerful man, both frank and free, but married to Rebecca, a terrible shrew. Rebecca knew if she once sat in St. Michael’s chair (on St. Michael’s Mount, in Cornwall), that she would rule her husband ever after; so she was very desirous of going to the mount. It so happened that Richard fell sick, and both vowed to give six marks to St. Michael if he recovered. Richard did recover, and they visited the shrine; but while Richard was making the offering, Rebecca ran to seat herself in St. Michael’s chair; but no sooner had she done so, than she fell from the chair, and was killed in the fall.—Southey, St. Michael’s Chair (a ballad, 1798).
Penniless (The), Maximilian I., emperor of Germany (1459, 1493-1519).
Penniman (Wolfert). Young captain of the Mayga in Outward Bound.—W. T. Adams (Oliver Optic).
Penny (Jock), a highwayman.—Sir W. Scott, Guy Mannering (time, George II.).
Penruddock (Roderick), a “philosopher,” or rather a recluse, who spent his time in reading. By nature gentle, kind-hearted, and generous, but soured by wrongs. Woodville, his trusted friend, although he knew that Arabella was betrothed to Roderick, induced her father to give his daughter to himself, the richer man; and Roderick’s life was blasted. Woodville had a son, who reduced himself to positive indigence by gambling. Sir George Penruddock was the chief creditor. Sir George dying, all his property came to his cousin, Roderick, who now had ample means to glut his revenge on his treacherous friend; but his heart softened. First, he settled all “the obligations, bonds, and mortgages, covering the whole Woodville property,” on Henry Woodville, that he might marry Emily Tempest; and next, he restored to Mrs. Woodville “her settlement, which in her husband’s desperate necessity, she had resigned to him;” lastly, he sold all his own estates, and retired again to a country cottage to his books and solitude.—Cumberland, The Wheel of Fortune (1779).