Oct. 27. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



317 



LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1855. 



BETBIBUTIVE JUSTICE. 



Distinct from the less significant instances of 

 supposed Divine retribution, which are collected 

 in such works as Beard's Theatre of God's Judg- 

 ments, and Reynolds's Triumph of Gods Revenge 

 against Murder, it has been often remarked that a 

 kind of poetical justice has been manifested in the 

 Nemesis which has overtaken those persons who 

 have devised modes of punishment, torture, or 

 death, for their fellow-creatures. The Scriptures 

 assure us that " an eje for an eye, and a tooth for 

 a tooth," will be exacted; that "all they who 

 take the sword shall perish with the sword;" and 

 that " whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 

 reap;" they afford us, moreover, an illustration 

 in the case of " the wicked Haman," who expiated 

 his enmity to the Jewish people on the " gallows, 

 fifty cubits high, which he had made for Mor- 

 decai." 



In profane history, will at once suggest itself 

 the legend of Perillus, condemned by the tyrant 

 Phalaris to be roasted in the brazen bull which 

 the too confident artisan had constructed for the 

 torture of others. Some other such story, whether 

 recorded in history I know not, occurred to 

 Shakspeare when he wrote, — 



" For 'tis the sport to have the engineer 

 Hoist with his own petar." 



Hamlet, Act. III. So. 4. 



The story of Perillus rests, I am aware, upon im- 

 perfect evidence, but it is at least as old as 

 Pindar, and answers my present purpose. Swift 

 makes a not very felicitous use of it as an illus- 

 tration in one of his " Drapier's Letters :" 



" This very much resembles the project of Mr. Wood; 

 and the like of this may possibly be Mr. Wood's fate ; 

 that the brass he contrived to torment the kingdom with, 

 may prove his own torment and destruction at last." — 

 Swift's Works (Sheridan's ed.), vol. ix. p. 29. 



Another appropriate legend is that of Ludovico 

 Sforza, Duke of Milan, who, it is asserted, was 

 crushed to death in a metallic collapsible prison of 

 his own invention. This story, too, appears to be 

 at variance with history ; a tale founded upon it, 

 entitled "The li-on Shroud," will be found in 

 Blachooods Mag., vol. xxviii. p. 364. 



Sancho Panza invoked blessings on the man 

 who invented sleep ; for him who prevented its 

 enjoyment, who will regret the fate which the 

 avenging Eumenides had in store ? — 



"Au neuvifeme sifecle, Motawakkel-Billah, dixifeme 

 calife abasside de Bagdad, ayantvoulu se venger du vizir 

 Mohammed, Ibn-Hammad, qui avait voulu le detroner, 

 I'empecha de dormir pendant plusieurs jours, et le fit 

 enfin renfermer dans un fourneau de fer, heriss^ de pointes 



No. 313.] 



aigues, et rougies au feu, supplice invents par Mohammed 

 lui-meme." — Lalanne, Curiosites des Traditions, p. 343. 



Mr. Davenport, in his History of the Bastile^ 

 Lond. 1838, remarks that, — 



" A mind tinctured with superstition, even though it 

 were not of the darkest hues, might be tempted to believe 

 that a fatality pursued the men by whom the Bastile 

 was raised. It has been seen that the original founder 

 was the famous Stephen Marcel, Provost of the Mer- 

 chants. ....... 



He attempted to save himself by flight, but he was struck 

 on the head with an axe, by De Chamy, and he fell at 

 the foot of the Bastile, Avhich he himself had built." — 

 P. 36. 



By Hugues Aubriot, in the time of Charles V., 

 the Bastile was advanced another step towards 

 completion. He added two towers, and strength- 

 ened the fortifications ; but the uncompromising 

 discharge of his duty as Provost of Paris, excited 

 enmity, and led to his final disgrace and ruin : 



" On lui fit son procfes, comme coupable du crime d'h^- 

 resie. II fut condamne, renferme k la Bastille, puis trans- 

 fer^, quelques mois aprfes, dans les prisons.de I'evech^, 

 que I'on nommait Oubliettes." — Bib. Univers,, torn, iii, 

 p. 17. 



I may yet cite another instance of retributive im- 

 prisonment : 



" The Bishop of Verdun was the inventor of the iron 

 cages in the time of Louis XI. of France, and he himself 

 became the very first tenant, being shut up in his own 

 invention- for eleven years." — Lambeth and the Vatican, 

 vol. iii. p. 195. 



The poisoner Sainte-Croix, as is well known, 

 having inadvertently let fall the precautionary 

 glass mask which he was in the habit of wearing, 

 lost his life through the noxious fumes of the de- 

 structive preparation he was compounding; and 

 in his sudden fate was involved that of the parti- 

 cipator in his crimes, his pupil and mistress, De 

 Brinvilliers. 



Another instance of death by poison is that of 

 the infamous monster Pope Alexander VI. : 



" It is but too certain that he once meditated taking oflf 

 one of the richest of the cardinals by poison ; his intended 

 victim, however, contrived, by means of presents, pro- 

 mises, and prayers, to gain over the head cook, and the 

 dish which had been prepared for the cardinal was placed 

 before the pope. He died of the poison he had prepared 

 for another." — Ranke, History of the Popes, vol. i. p. 52. 



This was a case of the — 



" Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return 

 To plague the inventor : thus even-handed Justice 

 Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice 

 To our own lips." 



Macbeth, Act I. So. 7. 



Voltaire throws discredit upon this legend, of 

 which he gives a somewhat different version, 

 Essai sur les Moeurs, chap. cxi. 



Returning to the East, the following illustrative 

 anecdote is cited by Lalanne, from the Univers 

 Pittoresque (Turquie), p. 304. : 



i'En 1691, le grand vizir Ali-Pacha introduisit la 



