THE DOG AND MURDERER. 191 



tween the accuser and the accused. These encounters 

 were denominated the judgment of God, from a per- 

 suasion that Heaven would rather work a miracle 

 than suffer innocence to perish with infamy. The 

 king, struck with such an accumulation of circumstan- 

 tial evidence against Macaire, determined to refer the 

 decision to the chance of battle. In other words, he 

 gave orders for a combat between the chevalier and 

 the dog. The lists were appointed in the Isle of Notre 

 Dame, then an uninclosed, uninhabited place. Ma- 

 caire's weapon being a great cudgel, the dog had an 

 empty cask allowed for his retreat, to enable him to 

 recover breath. Everything being prepared, the dog 

 no sooner found himself at liberty than he ran round 

 his adversary, avoiding his blows, and menacing him 

 on every side till his strength was exhausted ; then, 

 springing forward, he griped him by the throat, threw 

 him on the ground, and obliged him to confess his guilt, 

 in the presence of the king and the whole court. In 

 consequence of which, after a few days, the chevalier 

 was convicted upon his own acknowledgment, and be- 

 headed on a scaffold in the Isle of Notre Dame." This 

 curious narrative is translated from the Memoires sur 

 les Duels ; and is confirmed by many judicious criti- 

 cal writers, particularly Julius Scaliger and Montfau- 

 con, neither of whom has been regarded as a fabrica- 

 tor of idle stories. 



