124 pPant T^ore, TsegeT^b/, and. ISijr'icf, 



which had so strangely disappeared now covered everything, and 

 a piercing cold of great intensity obliged the king and his fellow- 

 guests to seek shelter and warmth within the Monastery walls. 

 Greatly astonished and moved at what he had seen, King William 

 called Albertus to him, and promised to grant him whatever he 

 might request. Albertus asked for land in the State of Utrecht, 

 whereon to erect a Monastery of his own order. His request was 

 granted, and he also obtained from the King many other favours. -] 

 It is recorded that on the same day that Alexander de' Medici, 

 the Duke of Florence, was treacherously killed, in the Villa of 

 Cosmo de' Medici, an abundance of all kinds of flowers burst into 

 bloom, although quite out of the flowering season ; and on that 

 day the Cosmian gardens alone appeared gay with flowers, as 

 though Spring had come. 



@?atKe7 (Sianiel"<t) ^fraca. 



At the commencement of the present chapter on extraordinary 

 and miraculous plants, allusion was made to certain trees which 

 were reputed to have borne as fruit human heads. A fitting con- 

 clusion to this list of wonders would appear to be an account of a 

 wondrous ear of Straw, which, in the year 1606, was stated 

 miraculously to have borne in effigy the head of Father Garnet, 

 who was executed for complicity in the Gunpowder Plot. It 

 would seem that, after the execution of Garnet and his companion 

 Oldcorne, tales of miracles performed in vindication of their 

 innocence, and in honour of their martyrdom, were circulated by 

 the Jesuits. But the miracle most insisted upon as a supernatural 

 confirmation of the Jesuit's innocence and martyrdom, was the 

 story of Father Garnet's Straw. The originator of this miracle 

 was supposed to be one John Wilkinson, a young Catholic, who, 

 at the time of Garnet's trial and execution, was about to pass over 

 into France, to commence his studies at the Jesuits' college at 

 St. Omers. Some time after his arrival there, Wilkinson was 

 attacked by a dangerous disease, from which there was no hope 

 of recovery; and while in this state he gave utterance to the story, 

 which Eudaemon-Joannes relates in his own words. Having 

 described his strong impression that he should "witness some imme- 

 diate testimony from God in favour of the innocence of His saint," 

 his attendance at the execution, and its details, he proceeds thus: — 

 " Garnet's limbs having been divided into four parts, and placed 

 together with the head in a basket, in order that they might be exhi- 

 bited according to law in some conspicuous place, the crowd began 

 to disperse. I then again approached close to the scaffold, and 

 stood between the cart and the place of execution ; and as I lingered 

 in that situation, still burning with the desire of bearing away 

 some relique, that miraculous ear of Straw, since so highly cele- 

 brated, came, I know not how, into my hand, A considerable 



