47 



request was granted. And when they had consulted together ibr some time, the body 

 was honourably buried in Lincoln Church, as though it had been that of a noble 

 martyr. Be it known also, that the Jews kept the body alive for ten days, that being 

 fed for so may days on milk, he might behold the various modes of torture. When 

 the King [Henry III. j had returned from the North of England, and was apprised 

 of what had happened, he rebuked Lord John, because he had promised life and the 

 continued use of his limbs to such a character, saying—' that blasphemer and homi- 

 cide deserves to suffer the punishment of death in many a form.' And when the 

 irrevocable sentence was impending over the accused, he says, ' My death over- 

 hangs me, nor can Lord John assist me who am destined to perish. Now I de- 

 clare the truth to you all. Almost all the Jews of England consented to the death 

 of this boy, with respect to whom the Jews are accused. And out of almost every 

 state in England, in which the Jews dwell, a select number was summoned together 

 to the sacrifice of this boy, as to the Paschal sacrifice.' And when he had thus 

 spoken, he was bound to the tail of a horse, and taken to the rack : and the other 

 Jews who had been accomplices in the deed, ninety-one in number, were conveyed 

 in carriages to London, and cast into prison. And if perchance they were deplored 

 by some of the Christians, they were lamented by the Caursini [their rivals in the 

 traffic of usury] without a single tear." 



Assuming that Matthew Paris is a historian of average 

 conscientiousness, his narrative establishes the confession of 

 one alleged criminal, and the conviction and execution of 

 several others. The external evidence is of the following 

 kmd. Though the murder is said to have taken place exactly 

 593 years ago, the precise spot where the remains were inter- 

 red in the cathedral is still pointed out by tradition. St. 

 Hugh, an ancient bishop, to whom the cathedral was dedicated, 

 is sometimes confounded with the child; but his lordship 

 sleeps in his proper place, in the chapel of " Our Ladye," di- 

 rectly behind the high altar, while the remains of the shrine and 

 tomb of Sir Hugh are on the south side of the choir near the 

 smaller transept. In 1790, in the making of some repairs, the 

 tomb was opened ; and the following facts were ascertained by 

 the Dean and Precentor. In a stone coffin lay the skeleton of 

 a child, enclosed in a leaden coffin, which latter was wrapped 

 in a thin sheet of lead, almost as recorded in the ballad. It 

 was ascertained that the skeleton was that of a male child j 

 its length was tliree feet three inches. The teeth were found 

 entire, some of them only partially developed, as in a child 



