Thus bon-mots, at the expence of other persons, satires, lampoons, have, on numberless occasions, been confuted by flagellations. The Reader surely has not forgotten the case of Miss de Limeuil, which has been recited in a former place; nor that of the Court Buffoon which is introduced in the same Chapter: and to these instances might be added that of the Poet Clopinel, the Continuator of that old and celebrated Romance, the Roman de la Rose, who was once very near being flagellated by the Ladies of the Court of France, for his having tried his wit at the expence of the Sex in general, as will be related in another place.
Indeed, to discuss the subject of the usefulness of flagellations in a manner adequate to its importance and extensiveness, would lead us into narratives without end: I will therefore, for the sake of shortness, content myself with adding a few facts to those before recited; as, besides supplying interesting consequences, they are sufficiently authenticated.
The first, which is very useful to prove that the secrets of Ladies ought never to be betrayed, is that of the flagellation which was inflicted on a certain Surgeon, who gave a loose to his tongue, at the expence of a great Lady to whom his assistance had been useful. The Lady I mean, was Wife to the Prince who became afterwards King of France, under the name of Henry IV: she was herself much more nearly allied to the Crown than the Prince her Husband, and would have mounted the Throne in her own right, if it had not been for the Salic Law. The Princess in question was learned, witty, handsome; and she had, in particular, such a fine arm, that it was commonly reported that the Marquis of Canillac, under whose guard she lived for a while as state prisoner, fell in love with her on the sight of it. With these qualifications she united gay, amorous dispositions, having even been suspected to love the great Duke of Guise, who afterwards nearly possessed himself of the Crown; and she had besides a turn for political intrigues. During the celebrated civil wars of the League, being in the City of Agen, she attempted to make herself mistress of the place; but the opposite party having found means to raise an insurrection against her, she was obliged to fly, accompanied by a body of about 80 Gentlemen and 40 soldiers: her flight was even so precipitate, that she was obliged to get on horseback without having time to procure a pillion, and in that situation she rode a great number of miles, behind a gentleman, being continually exposed to the greatest danger, for she passed through a body of a thousand Harquebusiers, who killed several of her followers: having at last reached a place of safety, she borrowed a dry shift from a servant maid, and thence pursued her journey to the next Town, named Usson, in Auvergne, where she recovered from her fears. However, the great fatigue she had undergone, threw her into a fever that lasted several days; and moreover, the want of that comfortable accommodation which has been just mentioned, a pillion, during her long precipitate flight, had caused that part of her body on which she sat, to be in a sad condition. A Surgeon was therefore applied to, to procure her relief; and such was the epulotick, sarcotick, cicatrizive, incarnative, healing, consolidant, sanative, nature of the salves he employed, that she was cured in a short time; and thus far the Surgeon certainly deserved her thanks: but as he afterwards indulged himself in idle stories concerning the cure he had performed, the Princess, who heard of it, grew much incensed against him, and caused him to be served with that kind of correction which is the subject of the present dissertation; that is to say, she caused him, as Scaliger assures, to be served with a flagellation (elle-lui fit donner les étrivieres.)
Nobody certainly will think that the revenge taken by the above Princess was improper; on the contrary, all persons will agree that it was a very becoming satisfaction, and which she owed to herself. It is true, every body looks with detestation upon the action of the Princess of Gonzaga, commonly called the fair Juliet, who caused a Gentleman to be assassinated, who had assisted her in making her escape from the Town of Fondi, which the celebrated Corsair Barbarossa had surprised during the night, with a view, as it is said, to seize upon her person, in order to make a present of her to the Grand-Signior,—being incensed at the remembrance of the Gentleman having seen her run in her shift, across the fields, by moon-light. But without making any remark on the difference of the treatment the above Ladies had recourse to, it will suffice to observe that no comparison can be made between the case of the above Gentleman, and that of the Surgeon: the latter had been guilty of an indiscretion of the blackest kind, and which none but a talkative Frenchman could have committed; a thing with which we are not told the Gentleman in question had been charged;—and when we reflect on the enormity of his fault, instead of judging that he was too severely used, we find he was treated with excessive mildness.
Indeed, the more we consider the circumstances of the whole affair, the more we are affected by the treacherous conduct of that miserable Surgeon. A wretch whom the Princess had distinguished in so flattering a manner from all the other persons of the same profession to whom she might have equally applied,—a scoundrel, a rascal, a fellow, whom she had with so much affability acquainted with the disagreeable situation in which she found herself, and to whom she had, no doubt, afterwards given such a bountiful and magnificent reward, for such a man to betray the secret of the Princess, and give a loose to his prating tongue at her expence! He certainly richly deserved the flagellation that was bestowed upon him, and, I hope those whose duty it was to serve him with it, were animated with the same sense of his guilt with which this article is written. To this I shall add nothing, except that it is very likely that, conformably to what has been observed in a former Chapter, the flagellation inflicted on the above Surgeon, or Barber, was inflicted in the Kitchen.
Flagellations have also been of service for punishing iniquitous Judges. I could wish to have many instances of that kind to relate: however, I will produce the following one. The story made its appearance in a news-paper, some years ago, at the time of the great paper-war that was waged about the American affairs, before the beginning of actual hostilities. The Writer who sent it to the Gazetteer, had adopted the signature of A Boston Saint; and as it made the whole of his first Essay, he had meant it, it seems, as a sort of specimen to introduce himself by, to the notice of the Public: he continued to write under that signature; and proved equal, at least, to any of those who drew their pens on the occasion, and even was decisively superior in point of local knowledge of the Colonies. The Story, which will be inserted in that Writer’s own words, gives a curious insight into the puritanical manners that prevailed in the New-England Provinces. Now, that they have the seat of their Government among them, these manners will undergo an alteration: they cannot be much longer the leading fashion of the Country.
“About forty years ago, many of the Chief Saints, at Boston, met with a sad mortification: yea, a mortification in the flesh.
“Captain St. Loe, Commander of a ship of War, then in Boston Harbour, being ashore, on a Sunday, was apprehended by the Constables, for walking on the Lord’s day. On Monday he was carried before a Justice of the peace: he was fined; refused to pay it; and for his contumacy and contempt of authority, was sentenced to sit in the Stocks, one hour, during the time of Change. This sentence was put in execution, without the least mitigation.
“While the Captain sat in durance, grave Magistrates admonished him to respect in future the wholesome laws of the Province; and Reverend Divines exhorted him ever after to reverence and keep holy the Sabbath-day. At length the hour expired; and the Captain’s legs were set at liberty.
“As soon as he was freed, he, with great seeming earnestness, thanked the Magistrates for their correction, and the Clergy for their spiritual advice and consolation; declaring that he was ashamed of his past life; that he was resolved to put off the old Man of Sin, and to put on the new Man of Righteousness; that he should ever pray for them as instruments in the hands of God, of saving his sinful soul.