378 



STAR STARCH. 



knife. " I can tell no one but Napoleon himself." 

 !><> you intend to murder him with it?" "Yes, 

 sir." " For what reason ?" " I can answer this 

 question to none but himself." The emperor then 

 commanded the young man to be brought before 

 him. Bernadotte, Berthier, Savary, Duroc and 

 Rapp were present. With an air of calmness, and 

 his hands bound behind his back, the youth came 

 into the presence of the emperor, and respectfully 

 bowed to him. Napoleon asked him, through Rapp, 

 the following questions : " What is your place of 

 residence?" " Naumburg." " Who is your father?" 

 " A Protestant clergyman." " How old are you ?" 

 " Eighteen years." " What did you intend to do 

 with your knife ?" " To kill you." " You are 

 beside yourself, young man : you are an Illumine." 

 " I am not beside myself; I do not know what an 

 Illumine is." "You are sick, then." " No, I am 

 not ; I am perfectly well." " Why did you mean 

 to kill me?" " Because you have injured my coun- 

 try." " Have I ever wronged you?" " You have 

 injured me in common with all the Germans." 

 "Who sent you? Who urged you to this crime?" 

 " No one : the conviction that I should do a great 

 service to my country and to all Europe by putting 

 you to death, was my motive." With the same 

 calmness, Stapss replied to all the emperor's inter- 

 rogatories. Corvisart, Napoleon's physician, was 

 called to feel th pulse of the young man. " Is it 

 not true, sir, that I am not sick?" " The young 

 man is well," said Corvisart, addressing the em- 

 peror. " I said so," observed the youth. " Your 

 head is disordered," continued the emperor; "you 

 will make your family unhappy. I will spare your life, 

 if you acknowledge your crime and ask my pardon." 

 " I wish for no pardon. I deeply regret the failure 

 of my plan." " Whose was the portrait found on 

 you ?" " It was that of a young person, whom I 

 love." " She will be greatly afflicted by your en- 

 terprise." " She will be pained at its ill success. 

 She hates you as much as I do." "If I pardon 

 you, will you thank me for it ?" " It shall not 

 prevent my killing you, if an opportunity offers." 

 Stapss was led away, and general Lauer appointed 

 to question him further, to discover whether he had 

 any associates. The youth firmly maintained that 

 no one was acquainted with his undertaking. He 

 was shot, October 27, at seven o'clock in the morn- 

 ing. He had taken no nourishment since the 24th. 

 Food was offered him, but he refused to eat. He 

 said that he was strong enough to go to the place 

 of execution. See Rapp's Memoirs. 



STAR. See Fixed Stars, Constellations, and 

 Planets. 



STAR, FALLING OR SHOOTING. See Fall- 

 ing Stars, Fireballs, and Meteors. 



STAR OF BETHLEHEM (ornithogalum umbel- 

 latum). This plant is sometimes called eleven o'clock, 

 from the circumstance of the flowers opening at 

 about that time in the morning. It is allied to, and 

 somewhat resembles, the onion. The root is a 

 bulb ; the leaves are linear, and all radical ; the 

 stem six or eight inches high, and terminated by a 

 corymb of six or eight white and star-like flowers : 

 these last are very evanescent, and close four or 

 five hours after expansion. The plant grows wild 

 in Europe, and is sometimes cultivated in gardens 

 for ornament. 



STAR-CHAMBER (camera stellata); a room in 

 the house of lords, so called from having its ceiling 

 adorned with gilded stars, or, according to some, 

 because it wag originally the place of deposit of the 



Jewish starrs (starra) or covenants. The despotic 

 tribunal, which sat here, was also called the slur- 

 chamber. It was under the direction of the chan- 

 cellor, and had jurisdiction of forgery, perjury, riots, 

 maintenance, fraud, libel and conspiracy, and, in 

 general, of every misdemeanour, especially those of 

 public importance, for which the law had provided 

 no sufficient punishment. It was this crimina 

 jurisdiction (its civil having gone into disuse) that 

 made it so powerful and odious an auxiliary of a 

 despotic administration. Its process was summary, 

 and often iniquitous, and the punishment which 

 inflicted, often arbitrary and cruel. It became par- 

 ticularly violent in the reign of Charles I. ; and it 

 was abolished, with the no less hateful high com- 

 mission court, by the long parliament, in 1641. Its 

 fall was an important step in the progress of English 

 liberty. 



STARBOARD ; the right side of a ship, when 

 the eye is directed forward. 



STARCHisa white, insipid, vegetable substance, 

 insoluble in cold water, but forming a jelly with 

 boiling water. It exists chiefly in the white and 

 brittle parts of vegetables, particularly in tube-rose 

 roots, and the seeds of gramineous plants. It may 

 be extracted by pounding these parts and agitating 

 them in cold water, when the fibrous parts will first 

 subside, after which the starch will gradually pre- 

 cipitate itself in a fine white powder ; or the'pounded 

 or grated substance (as the roots of arum, potatoes, 

 acorns, or horse-chestnuts, for instance) may be 

 put into a hair-sieve, and the starch washed through 

 with cold water, leaving the grosser matters be- 

 hind. Farinaceous seeds may be ground and treated 

 in a similar manner. Only seeds require to have 

 the oil expressed from them before the farina is ex- 

 tracted. In starch-making, the farina ferments and 

 becomes sour ; but the starch that does not undergo 

 fermentation is rendered more pure by this process. 

 Some water, already soured, is mixed with the flour 

 and water, which regulates the fermentation, and 

 prevents the mixture from becoming putrid ; and in 

 this state it is left about ten days in summer, and 

 fifteen in winter, before the scum is removed and 

 the water poured off. The starch is then washed 

 out from the bran, and dried, first in the open air, 

 and finally in an oven. When starch is triturated 

 with iodine, it forms combinations of various colours. 

 When the proportions of iodine are small, these 

 compounds are violet; when somewhat greater, 

 blue ; and when still greater, black. We can always 

 obtain the finest blue colour by treating starch with 

 an excess of iodine, dissolving the compound in liquid 

 potash, and precipitating by a vegetable acid. The 

 colour is manifested even at the instant of pouring 

 water of iodine into a liquid which contains starch 

 diffused through it. Hence iodine becomes an ex- 

 cellent test for detecting starch, and starch for de- 

 tecting iodine. Starch is convertible into sugar by 

 dilute sulphuric acid. To produce this change, we 

 must take 2000 parts of starch, diffuse them in 8000 

 parts of water, containing forty parts of strong sul- 

 phuric acid, and boil the mixture for thirty-six hours 

 in a basin of silver or lead, taking care to stir the 

 materials with a wooden rod, during the first hour 

 of ebullition. At the end of this time, the mass, 

 having become liquid, does not require to be stirred, 

 except at intervals. In proportion as the water 

 evaporates, it ought to be replaced. When the 

 liquor has been sufficiently boiled, chalk and animal 

 charcoal are added, and it is clarified with white of 

 egg. Th6 whole is then filtered through a flock of 





