2"! S. VI. 153., Dec. 4. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



449 



gained on the 18ib, and although they bad the 

 subsequent benefit of the somewhat fuller intel- 

 ligence which was known in the City at noon on 

 the 2l3t, they remained, during that day, in a 

 state of great uncertainty as to particulars, and 

 anxiously awaited the Duke's Despatch, which 

 ■was momentarily expected to arrive. Their*sus- 

 pense and anxiety may be more readily under- 

 stood, if we bear in mind the many strange and 

 false reports which had been previously in cir- 

 culation during the few days since it was known 

 that hostilities had commenced ; for instance, that 

 the allied army was in full pursuit of the beaten 

 French on the 17th. The following may be taken 

 as an authentic statement of particulars, as con- 

 cerns the Cabinet. 



As a matter of course, it was well understood 

 by the Government that the Despatch, whenever 

 it arrived, would be taken in the first instance 

 to the War Secretary, Earl Bathurst ; and there- 

 fore several members of the Cabinet felt great 

 pleasure, on the 21st, in accepting the Noble 

 Earl's invitation to dinner, in order that they 

 might be on the spot when the Despatch arrived. 

 They dined, they sat. No Despatch came. At 

 length, when the night was far advanced, they 

 broke up. Yet, delayed by a lingering hope that 

 the expected messenger might appear, they stood 

 awhile in a knot conversing on the pavement, 

 when suddenly was heard a faint and distant 

 shout! It was the shout of victory! Hurrah! 

 Escorted by a running and vociferous multitude, 

 the Major drove up. He was taken into the 

 house, and the Despatch was opened. 



The Despatch contained not only the Duke's 

 narrative of the " action," as he termed it, at 

 "Waterloo, but an account of the brief campaign 

 from its commencement, including Quatre Bras 

 and Ligny. On a first and hasty perusal the 

 impression received was somewhat indefinite ; the 

 great fact of the final triumph stood not forth in 

 sufficient relief; and the Cabinet were at fault. 

 It was now certain that an important victory had 

 been gained on the 18th ; but they could not 

 exactly gatlier from a first reading of the De- 

 spatch on what scale the allied armies had been 

 triumphant, or how far the success was final and 

 complete. They turned for information to Major 

 Percy ; but the gallant Major was dead beat ; — 

 much more disposed to go off into a doze than to 

 answer questions. In fact, he was still feeling 

 the eflTccts, as it afterwards transpired, of hard 

 fighting as well as of hard travelling ; for in the 

 interval between the two he had found no leisure 

 for repose, having been occupied in attending 

 upon his wounded friends and brother-officers 

 uj) to the moment when the Duke started him 

 with the Despatch. — " What number of prisoners 

 taken ? " they asked. 



" I saw a column of 10,000." 



" How many of the enemy's cannon ? " 



"All." 



Thus enlightened, the assembled Ministers read 

 on. Presently, another question. 



No answer I The Major was asleep ! 



The above particulars of the scene at Earl 

 Bathurst's were related to a most excellent and 

 exemplary Clergyman, the Hon. and Rev. R. L. 

 Melville, by a distinguished member of the Cabi- 

 net, who was present on the occasion, — no other 

 than the Right Hon. Nicholas Vansittart, Chan- 

 cellor of the Exchequer, afterwards Lord Bexley. 

 Mr. IMelville was kind enough to repeat the par- 

 ticulars, as he had them from Lord Bexley, to 

 the writer of these lines. 



It must have been after this incident at Earl 

 Bathurst's that the Despatch was taken on to 

 St. James's Square. 



Any reader of " N. & Q." who can explain 

 through what channels, respectively, Rothschild 

 and the Cabinet first obtained private intelligence 

 of the battle of Waterloo and of its issue (as it 

 is known they did at an early period), may 

 render good service to the cause of Historical 

 Truth. At this distance of time there can 

 hardly be any necessity for reserve ; and in all 

 probability there are persons living who can 

 speak, if they will. The question is to the general 

 public a mystery, but a mystery which may yet 

 be solved ; and " N. & Q.," which looks up such 

 matters, is the appropriate " medium." 



Thomas Boys. 



OFFICE TO PREVEKT MORTALITY AMONG SWINE. 



In the Cottonian MS. Julius D. VII., a volume 

 compiled by John de Wallingford, a monk of St. 

 Alban's, soon after the middle of the thirteenth 

 century (he died in 1258), is entered on fol. 8 '' a 

 curious Office or Form of Prayer to prevent a 

 mortality among swine, which may be worth plac- 

 ing on record : — 



" Contra mortalitatem Porcorum. 



" Sacei-dos induatur alba et stola, et hanc benedictionem 

 facial super ordeum mundum. 



" In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen. + 

 Crux bis. + Crux intersis. + Crax bis. + Crux dei do- 

 nis. + Crux signo. + Crux leo. + Crux agyos. + Crux 

 asci. + Crux agios. + Crux in nomine Domini. + Crux. 

 Exorcise te ordeum per Patrera et Filium et Spiritum 

 Sanctum, et per Sanctam Mariam, matrem Domini Jliesu 

 Cbrisli, et per ix. ordines angelorum, et per xii. apostolos, 

 et per iiij'"' ewangelistas, et per xxiiij. Seniores qui slant 

 ante tronum Dei, per centum xliiij. milia innocenles qui 

 pro Chrisli nomine passi sunt, et per vii. dormientes 

 fratres, Maximianum, Malchum, Marciauum, Constan- 

 tinum, Dionisium, Johanneni, et Serapion, et per omnes 

 sanctos Dei, qui nos precesscrunt, ab Adam usque in ho- 

 diernum diem, et in celis et in terris sunt nominati, ut 

 Porci qui de te comederint, ne de tac, ne de talaii, ne de 

 purpurola, ne de ullo morbo morientur. Legat ewange- 

 lium. III fi-incipio. Ps. Qui habitat, usque ad demonio. 



