commiffary a suspicion of his guilt. He accordingly fent for the body, and his fufpicions were confirmed by a view of it. The affaffin was therefore committed to the Chatelet, which is the city-prifon at Paris, as Newgate is here; the body was likewife fent there, and, according to cuftom, expofed to public view, that the relations and friends of the deceased might come and lay claim to it. No fooner was madam d'Efcombas informed of the confinement of her lover, but, blinded with her paffion, the went to visit him in his prifon, and was there detained upon a fufpicion of being an accomplice in the murder. In the prifon madam d'Efcombas and her gallant plunged deep in guilty joys, and a child, whofe education madam Adelaid took charge of, after the tragical death of these lovers, was the fruit of their unlawful amours. Monjoy, though he rioted in blifs, and his paffion for madam d'Efcombas continued unabated, was, however, from time to time feized with a deep melancholy; he knew himfelf to be guilty of the murder, and had not the leaft doubt but he should fall a victim to public juftice; he therefore joined with the friends and relations of madam d'Efcombas, in endeavouring to perfuade her to go for England, for he was aware of the weakness of human nature, and juftly apprehenfive that tortures might force from him a confeffion which would prove fatal to one who was dearer to him than himfelf, Madam d'Efcombas, blinded by her paffion for Monjoy, and doomed to deftruc tion, would never give ear to this advice; the thought herfelf fecure in her lover's attachment, and never once imagined that a near view of death might fhake the firm refolution he had made never to impeach her. Just about the time that the murder above related was committed, the parliament of Paris, which is the chief court of juftice in the kingdom, and without the concurrence of which, no criminal can be brought to justice, was first removed to Pontoife, and then banished to Soiffons, on account of their fevere proceedings against the archbishop of Paris, who had given pofitive orders to all priefts and curates, not to adminifter the facrament to any but fuch as could produce certificates from their confeffor. This circumftance procured our guilty lovers a year and a half of added life, for that space of time elapfed before the return of the parliament, and till then it was not poffible to bring them to a trial. They availed themselves of the time which they owed to the absence of their judges, and drank deep draughts of the cup of love; but it was dafhed with poisonous ingredients, which at last made them both rue their ever having tafted it. They were roufed from their trance of pleafure by the return of the parliament, which was no fooner recalled, but Monjoy was brought to a trial, and being upon full evidence found guilty of the murder of monf. d'Efcombas, was condemned to be broke alive upon the wheel. Amidst all the torments which he fuffered in receiving the queftion ordinary and extraordinary, he perfifted to affirm that he had no accomplices; and the guilty wife of d'Efcombas would have escaped from juftice, had not a principle of of religion, imbibed from his infancy, had more power upon the mind of her lover, than even the moft excruciating bodily pain. The confeffor who attended Monjoy upon the scaffold, refufed pofitively to give him abfolution, if he did not difcover his accomplices, telling him, in the moft peremptory fenfe, that he could not hope for falvation, if he concealed them from the knowledge of the world. This had fuch an effect upon the unhappy man who was on the verge of eternity, that he defired madam d'Efcombas might be fent for; fhe was accordingly brought in a coach, and Monjoy told her in the prefence of the judges, that she was privy to the murder of her huf band. Upon hearing this fhe immediately fainted away, and was carried back to prifon. Her lover was, pursuant to his fentence, broke alive upon the wheel, after having made a pathetic remonftrance to the ftanders-by, and madam d'Efcombas was about a month afterwards hanged at the Greve at Paris upon his impeachment. Such examples as thefe fhew, that the misfortunes which attend unlawful love, are often owing to the cruelty of parents, who, by tyrannifing over the hearts of their children, lead them into that ruin which they might have escaped, if treated with indulgence, T. W. NATURAL NATURAL HISTORY. THE velocity of horses in the race, philofphically confidered, by Monfieur CONDAMINE. From his tour to Italy, in the years 1755, and 1756. T HE fpectacle which at prefent forms the amufement of the people of Rome, retains nothing of the barbarity of the ancient combats of gladiators. Some of the princes and Roman noblemen amuse themselves by keeping horfes purely for the courfe: not as in England, backed by a rider, but alone, at full liberty, and entirely delivered up to their natural ardour, and that kind of emulation which the concourfe of people affembled feems to infpire*. Eight or ten horfes, commonly barbs, of a small fize, and mean figure, retained on the fame line by a rope extended about the height of their breast, fet off at the in ftant when they let this rope fall. In the races at carnival time, which are the most folemn, the course is ufually in the long street at Rome, to which this exercife has given the name of il Corfo, or Raceftreet. They take care at fuch times to gravel it over its length is 865 toifes +. I obferved twice, by means of a watch for feconds, and the help of a signal, that this diftance was run over in 141 feconds, which makes near 37 feet a fecond. A little reflection will make this fpeed appear much more confiderable than at firft we may imagine it to be. It is evident that we cannot sup pofe more than two leaps or progreffions on gallop to one fecond, feeing that each of thefe leaps requires at least three very diftin&t points of time, viz. that in which the horfe lifts himself from the ground, that in which we see him cleaving * At Florence, in order to increase the speed of the horses, which there also run alone, without a rider to direct them, they place a large piece of leather, fomewhat in form of the wings of a faddle, on their backs, ftuck full on the infide with very fharp prickles. The barrier being formed, and every thing ready for the race, the fpectators immediately fet up a loud fhout, at the noife of which the horses affrighted start off, and the prickles in the flapping leather on their backs ftill continuing to goad them more and more as they run, their speed is thus urged to the highest pitch their nerves will allow, till the goal at length happily puts an end to it, by terminating at once the conteft and their pain. The barrier they run in is formed by a strong railing, about breast high, with a rope at either end, to keep the horses within the bounds, and the spectators are all placed on feats without. That is to fay from the rope of the extended barrier, which is 74 feet beyond the obelisk, to the Porta del Popolo at the faliant angle of the palace de Yenife. cleaving the air, and that in which he defcends again; and that these two bounds, thus fuppofed to be made in every fecond, require fix definitive moments, a period scarce perceptible in fo fhort a space of time. These horses, which are but of an inconfiderable fize, and whofe fwiftnefs every fecond is equal to 37 feet, pass then, at each bound, over a space of more than eighteen feet, which is very near equal to four times the length of their body taken from the breaft to the tail *. It is true, indeed, that this length is more than doubled by the extenfion which their outftretched gallop gives their limbs before and behind. All this confidered, how can the fleetnefs of the English horfes be by a great deal greater, as it is known in reality to be? but there are certain cafes wherein the truth furpaffes all the bounds of probability, and of this kind is that at prefent under our confideration. The late M. Dufay writ in 1737, from Newmarket, that the courfe there of four English miles †, of which he had been an eye-witnefs, had been completed in lefs than eight minutes, by four or five fe conds. Thefe miles are 826 of our toifes, which makes more than 41 feet in a fecond, or near five feet more than the barbs at Rome; and we must also remark here that thefe latter run at full liberty, whereas the English horfes are burthened with the weight of a rider t. This fleetnefs, however, of 41 feet 2-3ds, is ftill but an ordinary degree of fwiftnefs there, inafmuch as of ten horfes which ran together, the very hindmoft of them was no more than twelve or fifteen paces from the end of the courfe. Befides, it is afferted that the fame course has been frequently run over in fix minutes and fix feconds. I have this as a fact from a gentleman who has often been concerned in the races at Newmarket ||. And this fwiftness, which would amount to more than fifty-four feet in a fecond, is to that of the barbs nearly as three to two. We must also obferve, that instead of one English mile, or very little more, to which the courfe at Rome is limited, that of Newmarket is four miles, a space too long for the swiftness of any horfe to preferve itself through on a fenfible equality. It is evident that It is upon principles of this kind that naturalifts prove a flea, comparatively fpeaking, to be the ftrongeft, as well as swifteft animal in being. For as fwiftnefs depends upon a strong conformation of the mufcles, of which we have a remarkable inftance in the hind legs of a hare, from whence it is well known, that, like deer, greyhounds, and other quadrupeds, the derives her velocity; and as this swiftnefs again is to be measured by the distance they throw themselves at every bound, compared with the length of their bodies; if we examine the fpeed and ftrength of a flea by this method of reafoning, we fhall find that inftead of four, it is able to throw itself at least forty times its length; a force and velocity ten times greater than that of the barbs at Rome. The English mile was fixed by Henry VII. at 1760 yards or rods of three feet each, confequently this mile contains 5,280 English feet, which are equivalent to 4,957 of the Paris meafure, or to 816 French toifes: the proportion of the English foot to the French being as 1,352 to 1,440. 1 And very often additional weights carried by the riders. Mr. Taaffe, then at Paris, fince dead. that this fwiftnefs muft abate towards the end of the course, and confequently that in the firft moments of the race its maximum must be at leaft upwards of fifty four feet in a fecond. The following are the elucidations I have received, fince the reading of this memoir, from Dr. Maty, keeper of the library in the British museum. "There are (fays Dr. Maty) two courfes at Newmarket, the long and the round: The first is exactly four English measured miles and 380 yards or more; that is to fay, 7,420 or English rods, or 3,482 French toifes. The fecond is not four English miles by 400 yards; that is to fay, it is 6,640 yards, or 3,116 French toifes. Childers, the fwifteft horfe ever remembered, has run the first courfe in feven minutes and an half, and the fecond in fix minutes and forty feconds, which amounts to 46 feet five, or nine inches French, in the fecond: Whereas all other horfes fince the foregoing, take up at leaft feven minutes and fifty feconds in completing the firft and longest courfe, and feven minutes only in the shorteft, which is 44 feet five or fix inches, the fecond. Thefe (Dr. Maty adds) are facts, which I believe to be true, I muft alfo add, that it is commonly fuppofed, that thefe courfers cover, at every bound, a space of ground in length about 24 English feet." This is a little wide of my conjecture of two bounds in the fecond. Every bound in this cafe would be about 18 royal feet and a half, for the fleetest barb in Rome, and twenty-two or twenty-three feet and a half, for English running horfes; fo that the fwiftnefs of the latter to that of the barbs, is very nearly as four to three. VOL. VI. F This |