CHAP. X. MIDDLE AGES. 



265 



The mines of Sardinia, which have been no- Sardinia. 

 ticed in an earlier part of this inquiry, had pro- 

 working of which she strongly urges by the representation 

 that "par le moyen desquelles les finances de sa majestie 

 seront beaucoup plus grandes que celles de tous les princes 

 Chretiens,, et ses sujets plus heureux de tous lee peuples." 



The enumeration which this lady gives is a curious paper, 

 whether it be viewed as an effort of quackery on her part, or 

 as a proof of the view she had of the tendency, in that age, to 

 become the dupes of metallurgists .and alchymists, both de- 

 scriptions of which adepts seem to have abounded. 



We give an abridged specimen of her professions. In the 

 Pyrennees, near St. Beal, she found a good mine of gold ; in 

 the mountain of Sault, also a mine of gold ; at a league from 

 Lorde, a valuable mine of silver; in the county of Foix, a 

 league from the river, a mine of gold; in the mountain 

 Montraustaud, a mine of silver ; in the mountain of Cardazel, 

 a mine of silver -, at a place called Alsen, a mine of silver ; 

 at half a league from Loural, a mine of gold, and another of 

 silver near it, at Desatie ; at Cousan, a mine of silver con- 

 taining much gold ; in the barony of Regus, near Narbonne, 

 a mine of gold; in the Condonnois, a mine of gold; in the 

 village of Rouripies, near Pongibant, and in the mountain of 

 Peuj, good mines of silver ; in Provence, near to Frejus, a 

 mine of silver ; in Dauphine, a mine of gold in the mountain 

 d'Auriau ; and, besides all these, vast mines of lead, iron, cop- 

 per, sulphur, and coal, and others which yield precious stones, 

 such as granates, rubies, hyacinths, opals, talc, turquoises, 

 amethysts, alum, and diamonds like those of Alencon ! ! ! 



Mining in France seems, however, to have engaged the 

 most attention from the beginning of the fifteenth to that of 

 the following century, when various ordinances were issued 

 to promote and regulate the rights of property, and the modes 

 in which the operations were to be conducted. It is not im- 

 probable that the discovery of the mines of America, and the 

 current of wealth that flowed from thence to Europe, may 



