MICROSCOPIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 65 



isms may perhaps float for years in the highest 

 strata of the atmosphere" P. 211. (See below, 

 Chap. viii. Sect. 11.) 



6. These facts cast light on a mysterious page 

 in D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation. 

 The scene to which we refer, is depicted with all 

 the historian's graphic felicity in vol. iv. book 

 xvi. ch. v. 3 where he treats of Zwingle and the 

 Reformation in Switzerland. It is amusing to 

 observe that while DAubigne makes a kind of 

 apology for introducing the story, he carefully 

 refrains from committing himself either to its 

 truth or falsehood. 



" On the 26th July (the year was 1531), a 

 widow, chancing to be alone before her house in 

 Castelenschloss, suddenly beholds a frightful 

 spectacle blood springing from the earth all 

 around her. She rushes in alarm into the cot- 

 tage, but oh, horrible ! blood is flowing every- 

 where from the wainscot and from the stones ; 

 it falls in a stream from a basin on a shelf, 

 and even the child's cradle overflows with it. 

 The woman imagines that the invisible hand of 

 an assassin has been at work, and rushes in 

 distraction out of doors, crying ' Murder, mur- 

 E 



