THE HOUSE. 



from doubting any such matter that they rather hoped to 

 reoeive some comfort and relief at his hands. 



" The reason that moved the prelate to commit that execrable 

 impiety was because he thought the famine would the sooner 

 cease if these unprofitable beggars that consumed more bread 

 than they were worthy to eat were despatched out of this 

 world.; for he said that these poor folks were lite to mice 

 that were good for nothing but to devottr come. But God 

 Almighty, the just avenger of the poor folk's quarrel, did not 

 long suffer this hainouS tyrany, this most detestable fact, 

 unpunished ; for He mustered up an army of mice against the 

 arfchbishop, and sent thetii to persecute him as his furious 

 Alastors, so that they afSicted hinl both day iUld night, and 

 would not suffer him to take rest in any place. Whereupon 

 the prelate, thinking that he should be secure from the injury 

 of the mice if he were in a certain tower that staHdeth in the 

 Bhine near to the towne, betook himself unto the said tower, as 

 Bafe refuge and sanctuary from his enemies, and locked himself 

 in ; but the innumerable troops of mice chased hirii continually 

 very eagerly, and swamme unto him npon the top of the water 

 to execute the just judgement of God ; and so at last he was 

 most miserably devoured by those sillie creattres, who pursued 

 him with such bitter hostility that it is recorded they scraped 

 and knawed out his very name from the walls and tapestry 

 wherein it was written, after they had so cruelly devoured his | 

 body. Wherefore the tower wherein he is eaten up by the 

 mice is shown to this day for a perpetual monument to all 

 Eucceeding ages of the barbarous and inhuman tyrany of this 

 imj^otlS prelate, being situate in a little green island in the 

 midst of the Ehine, near to the town of Wiilgen, and is com- 

 monly called, in the German tongtle, the Mouse-tower." 



The clever author of " Animal Life " gives us a humoi'ous 

 dissertation on mouse-catching, which I Will take the liberty of 

 here reprinting, not that it is likely to be of much servifce to 

 mouse-keepers, but rather as a peace-offering to those outraged 

 personages hinted at in the opening of this chapter. 



It is not so easy to clear a house of micd as many fieoplo 

 imagine, particularly if traps are used as a means of destruc- 

 tion. Many wiU be caught when the traps are fltst set, but 

 the numbers fall off and at last cease altogether, when the 

 householder flatters himself that the mice are all gone. But 

 the fact is thd little creatures have learned caution, and have 

 Only avoided entering the trap while they continue their depre- 



