142 EXAMINATION of an HISTORICAL HTPOTHESIS 



of the ftrongeft light. It therefore was not read in the little 

 dark chapel of the church #. Maurice de Seves, in all pro- 

 bability, puts it in his pocket, and takes it home for his delibe- 

 rate examination. He had already given his opinion on the 

 legend of the medal, which afcertained Laura's relation to the 

 grave. His credit, therefore, as an antiquary, is at ftake to fup- 

 port this opinion, by the further evidence of the rotten parch- 

 ment ; and next day he produces a fairly written fonnet, which 

 he declares to have copied from the original, of which, with 

 much pains, he had at length been able to decypher the cha- 

 racters. The original is never afterwards heard of. A copy, 

 written likewife on parchment, is preferved at this day among 

 the archives of the family of Sade, which they pretend to be 

 the original, found in the grave, and regard accordingly as a 

 mofl precious document. But, though mutilated a little to give 

 it the air of antiquity, as its writing is extremely diftincl, and 

 may be eaiily read, that circumftance of itfelf demonstrates, that 

 it cannot be the parchment which, even two hundred years ago, 

 was not without the utmoft difficulty decyphered by Maurice 

 de Seves, with the aid of a very ftrong light. 



The fonnet or epitaph itfelf is generally efteemed a poor 

 composition ; and the Italian authors are indignant that it mould 

 ever have been fufpected to have come from the hand of Pe- 

 trarch: but Petrarch's compositions are not all of tran- 

 fcendent merit ; and its intrinsic character is not, perhaps, of 

 itfelf, fufficient to bring its authenticity into doubt. The me- 

 dal and the lead box are faid to have been feen about the mid- 

 dle of the prefent century, in the poffeffion of the monks of the 

 Convent of St Claire; but there they are no longer ; and the 



Abbe 



* " Sacellum, in quoillud (fepulchrum) videtur, obfcurum eft. Siniftra ingreflus 

 habet altare muro adftru&um, ante quod, fub grandi faxo, fine omni ornatu et. iiv- 

 fcriptione, Laura eubat." Phil. Thomasini, Petr. Rediviv. p. ill. 



