Description of print of Catherine, Countess of Desmond, quite correct as to face, hair, and cloak. There is no button, but over the breast it is laced. In the inside of the black hood is a damask pattern waved with flowers.
C. J. W.
Woman torn to pieces by Wild Cats as a Punishment for Infanticide (Vol. iii., p. 91.).
—In the Wonders of the Universe, or Curiosities of Nature and Art, vol. ii., p. 555., will be found the account of this affair. The culprit was named Louise Mabrée, a midwife in Paris; the corpses of no less than sixty-two infants were found in and about her house: she was sentenced to be shut up in an iron cage with sixteen wild cats, and suspended over a slow fire. When the cats became infuriated with heat and pain, they turned their rage upon her; and after thirty-five minutes of the most horrible sufferings, put an end to her existence,—the whole of the cats dying at the same time, or within two minutes after. This occurred in 1673.
J. S. WARDEN.
"Racked by pain, by shame confounded" (Vol. iv., p. 7.).
—These are the commencing lines of a short original poem called "The Negro's Triumph." It is to be found in the Parent's Poetical Anthology, edited by Mrs. Mant, p. 231. 5th edition, 1849.
T. H. KERSLEY, B.A.