•a-'OS. VI. 155.. Dec. 18. '.58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



505 



15,000Z. in the ?ettlement of the colony, and 5000Z. 

 was re?erveil for clearing off the interests of pri- 

 vate individuals. They engaged to build at the 

 Derry (from them called Londonderry) 200 houses, 

 and at Coleraine 100: 60 to be erected at the 

 former, and 40 at the latter, place within the 

 year; and the remainder before the end of If! 11. 

 They, moreover, undertook to provide certain for- 

 tifications. They failed, however, in their engage- 

 ments. The buildings proceeded but slowly, and 

 on the 11th March of the last-mentioned year 

 we find them petitioning to be allowed to defer 

 the completion of their erections at the Derry until 

 the following year. It was long afterwards before 

 all was finished. I know nothing of the present 

 receipts or expenses of management. 



John Maclean. 

 Hammersmith. 



P.S. — Since writing my memorandum on this 

 subject I have referred to a book entitled A Con- 

 cise View of the Irish Society, published by the Court 

 in 1822. I think that B. S. may obtain from this 

 work the farther information which he requires ; at 

 least it will show the proportions in which the sum 

 was raised by the twelve great London companies 

 to which the allotments of the land were made. 



MISS BANFANG. 



(2"'" S. vi. 412.) 



TTte History of the Possession of Mademoiselle 

 'Elisabeth de Ranfuhig, by M. Pichard, M.D., was 

 printed at Nancy in 1622. I have m t seen the 

 book, but a summary is given by Calmet. The 

 case, in the modern noinenclatnre, would be 

 classed under electro-biology or clairvoyance. 



Mademoiselle de Ranfaing wa.s a young widow 

 of good position and unquestioned purity. She 

 refused the hand of a physiciiin, who administered 

 to her a magic philtre, which seems to have given 

 the demon access. On September 2, 1619, the 

 exorcists of Lorraine commenced their operations, 

 after the physicians had pronounced the symptoms 

 stipernatural. The experiments were made in the 

 presence of persons of the highest rank, lay and 

 ecclesiastic, and all agreed that imposture was im- 

 possible, and that a demon moved ]\Ille. de Ran- 

 faing's body, and answered through her mouth. 



The difference of this from ordinary possessions 

 was, that in them the demon is annoyed at prayers 

 and religious ceremonies; in this he not only made 

 the sign of the cross, and repeated prayers, but an- 

 swered questions in divinity : — 



"On lur proposa ties questions trfcs-relev^es et trfcs- 

 difficiles sur la Trinitd, I'lncarnatinn, le S. Sacrament de 

 I'aiitel, la grace ile Dieii, le I'ranc arl>itre, la niaiiiore dont 

 leg anges et los dt^moiis connoissent les pcr.soes dps liommes, 

 &c, et il rdpondit avec bcaucoiip de nettet(5 et de pr(?ci- 

 sion." 



The whole case will repay perusal ; but as the 



hook is common, I shall make only one more ex- 

 tract in answer to A. AV.'s Query : — 



" On dit au De'mon en parlant Latin et Italien dans la 

 meme phrase: Adi Schnlastram aeniorem, et osculare ejus 

 pedes, la cui Scarpa ha piii di sngaro ; au meme moment il 

 alia baiser le pied du sieur Juiliet, Ecolatre de Saint 

 Georges, plus ancien que M. Viardin, Ecolatre de la Pri- 

 matiale. M. Juiliet avoit le pied droit plus court que le 

 gauche, ce qui Tobligeoit h porter le Soulier de ce pied-1^ 

 releve par un morceau de liege, nommeen Italien sugaro," 

 i. 215. — • Traits sur les Apparitions des Esprits et sur les 

 Vampirei, par le R. P. Doni Augustin Calraet, 2 torn. 12°, 

 Paris, 1751. 



FiTZHOPKINS. 



Garrick Club. 



PERSECDTIONS OF POLISH NUNS. 



(2"" S. vi. 187. 259. 276.317.) 



When the Latin Church was moved to more 

 energetic missionary labour, its officials employed 

 in secret the argument of torture, and handed 

 over the body to the grave-digger if killed, but if 

 left alive and unconverted, the living body was 

 assigned over to the secular arm to be burnt. 

 AVhen the Greek Church is moved to like la- 

 bours, the Emperor, who is ecclesiastical and se- 

 cular head of all the Russias, openly tortures those 

 whom he desires to convert so long as they live 

 and remain within his territory, until he has con- 

 verted them. The following is an instance, taken 

 from Dr. C. W. Russell's Life of Mezzofanti (p. 

 445.), which is an expansion of his article in the 

 Edinhxirgh Review (January, 1855). : — 



" The bishop of the diocese [Minsk] and the chaplain 

 of the [Basilian] convent, having themselves conformed 

 to the imperial will, first endeavoured to bend the reso- 

 lution [not to renounce allegiance to the Holj- See] of 

 these sisters [thirty-five in number] Xiy blandishment, 

 but In the end sought by open violence to compel them 

 into submission. But the noble-minded sisters, with their 

 abbess [Makrena Mirazylawski] at their head, firmly 

 refused to yield; and, in the year 1839, the entire com- 

 munity (with the exception of one who died from grief 

 and terror) were driven from their convent, and marched 

 in chains to Witepsk, and afterwards to Polosk, where, 

 with two other communities equally firm in their attach- 

 ment to their creed, they were subjected, for nearly sis 

 years, to a series of cruelties and indignities of which it is 

 difficult to think without horror, and which would revolt 

 all credibility, were they not attested by authorities far 

 from partial to the monastic institute. (^ Househnld Words, 

 13 May, 1854, No. 216.; Rohrbacher's Histoire de I'Eglise, 

 xxviii. p. 431.) Chained hand and foot; flogged; beaten 

 with the fist and with clubs; thrown to the earth and 

 trampled underfoot; compelled to break stones and to 

 labour at quarries and earthworks ; dragged in sacks 

 afler a bo'it through a lake in the depth of winter; sup- 

 plied only with tlie most loathsome food, and in most 

 insufticient quantity; lodged in cells creeping with mag- 

 gots and with vermin ; fed for a time exclusively on salt 

 herrings, without a drop of water; tried, in a word, by 

 every conceivable device of crucdty ; — the perseverance 

 of these heroic women is a lively miracle of martyr-like 

 fidelity. Nine of the number died from the effects of the 

 excea.sive and repeated floggings to which, week after 



