At Leaping o'er a Midsommer-bon-fier,
Or at the Drawing Dun out of the myer:
At any of those, or all these presently,
Wagge but your finger, I am for you, I!"
VACILLATING NEWSPAPERS.
The newspapers of Paris, submitted to the censorship of the press, in 1815, announced in the following terms, Bonaparte's departure from the Isle of Elba, his march across France, and his entry into the French Capital:—9th March—The Cannibal has escaped from his den. 10th—The Corsican ogre has just landed at Cape Juan. 11th—The Tiger has arrived at Gap. 12th—The Monster has passed the night at Grenoble. 13th—The Tyrant has crossed Lyons. 14th—The Usurper is directing his course towards Dijon, but the brave and loyal Burgundians have risen in a body, and they surround him on all sides. 18th—Bonaparte is sixty leagues from the Capital; he has had skill enough to escape from the hands of his pursuers. 19th—Bonaparte advances rapidly, but he will never enter Paris. 20th—To-morrow, Napoleon will be under our ramparts. 21st—The Emperor is at Fontainebleau. 22nd—His Imperial and Royal Majesty last evening made his entrance into his Palace of the Tuileries, amidst the joyous acclamations of an adoring and faithful people.
PRESSING TO DEATH, AND PRAYING AND FASTING.
In a number of Oliver Cromwell's Newspaper, "The Perfect Account of the Daily Intelligence," dated April 16th, 1651, we find this horrid instance of torture:—
"Mond. April 14th.—This session, at the Old Bailey, were four men pressed to death that were all in one robbery, and, out of obstinacy and contempt of the court, stood mute and refused to plead; from whence we may perceive the exceeding great hardness some men are grown unto, who do not only swerve from instructions, exhortations, and goodnesse, but become so lewd and insolent that they render themselves the proper subjects for whom severe laws were first invented and enacted."
The very next paragraph in the paper is to the following effect:—