A few days after this event, however, Dionysius was called hence by a natural death.
Diocletian, who is said to have been a friend of Cledonius, and moved perhaps by the youth and graceful appearance of Pancras, strove by flattery and caresses to induce him to do sacrifice to the heathen gods; to this proposition Pancras absolutely refused to consent, and reproached the Emperor for his weakness in believing to be gods, men, who, while on earth, had been remarkable for their vices. Diocletian, stung by these reproaches, commanded that the youth should be instantly beheaded, which sentence was immediately carried into execution. His death is said to have taken place on 12th May, 303; the martyr being then but fourteen years of age.
The gate in Rome, rendered so remarkable lately as having been the chief point attacked by the French troops, was formerly called Porta Aurelia; but was subsequently named Porta Pancrazio, after this youthful sufferer.
R. R. M.
Pallavicino and Count d'Olivarez (Vol. iii., p. 478.)
—Ferrante Pallavicino was descended from a noble family, seated in Placenza. He entered the monastery of Augustine Friars at Milan, where he became a regular canon of the Lateran congregation. He was a man of fine genius, and possessed great wit, but having employed it in writing several satirical pieces against Urban VIII. during the war between the Barberini and the Duke of Parma and Placenza, he became so detested at the court of Rome, that a price was set on his head. One Charles Morfu, a French villain, was bribed to ensnare him, and pretending to pass for his friend and pity his misfortunes, persuaded him to go to France, which he said would be much to his advantage. Pallavicino gave himself up entirely to the direction of this false friend, who conducted him over the bridge at Sorgues into the territory of Venaissin, where he was arrested by people suborned for that purpose, was carried to Avignon, thrown into a dungeon, from which he tried to make his escape, and in the year 1644, after a fourteen months' imprisonment, was beheaded in the flower of his age. He was the author of a number of small pieces, all of which are marked by the lively genius of the author. They were collected and published at Venice in 1655, and amongst them I found one entitled "La disgracia del Conte d'Olivarez," which, perhaps, may be the work MR. SOULEY has in MS.
For a more lengthy account of this unhappy and extraordinary man, I would refer MR. SOULEY to the life prefixed to his collected works, and to that prefixed to a French translation of his Divortio celeste, printed at Amsterdam in 1696; and also to the preface to the English translation of that same very curious work, printed at London in 1718.
WILLIAM BROWN, Jun.
Mind your P's and Q's (Vol. iii., pp. 328. 357. 463.).
—When I proposed this Query, I mentioned that I had heard one derivation of the phrase. As it is different from either of those which have been sent, it may, perhaps, be worth insertion. I was told by a printer that the phrase had originated among those of his craft, since young compositors experience great difficulty in discriminating between the types of the two letters.