JOHN PRINOE. 353 
curious incident connected with Totnes. The sermon was published 
in London in 1709, is entitled Self murder asserted to be a very 
heinous crime, and contains an account of the rescue of a woman 
who threw herself over the bridge at Totnes, near twenty feet 
high, into the river. This woman was the wife of the sexton, and 
on a Sunday she, being as Prince thought tempted by the devil, 
got her daughter to go with her for a walk as far as Totnes bridge. 
It was in the winter (January 25th, 1707), and a large quantity 
of water was running down the river. Stopping to look over the 
parapet, she suddenly, without warning, leapt on it, and from 
thence into the river. Her daughter strove to save her, but 
was pulled over by her mother’s weight, and both fell into the 
water. And then comes the marvellous part of the story, for 
they both fell on a bank of sand before unknown, which seemed 
to have appeared on purpose to save them, and stood safely there 
till rescued by a boat. Prince makes this incident a text on 
which to preach against the sin of suicide. He speaks of it as 
a story well attested, yet hardly to be paralleled in history, and 
in the sermon gives many necessary instructions how to avoid a 
sin of this nature. 
From his evident strong belief in the almost miraculous ap- 
pearance of the bank of sand in question, and from passages 
scattered through the Worthies I cannot help being impressed 
with the fact that Prince was to some extent a superstitious man. 
In his account of George Monk, Duke of Albemarle, he refers to 
the death of his companion, General Dean, in a fight with the 
Dutch, and says, ‘‘in whose death there happened something so 
remarkable, that it may be worth inserting. This Dean, the 
night before he was killed, the rats had torn and devoured all 
the parts of his doublet on the left side where he was shot with 
a cannon bullet. And his own spirit was much sensible of his 
approaching fate; for though he was a Beemest in religion, yet 
he retired for two hours to some private devotions (which was 
not usual with him) the morning before his death; and those 
who observed him then, he being valiant cnough, saw death in 
his face.’’ 
And again, referring to General Monk’s march to London after 
Cromwell’s death, he says, ‘“*Mr. Scott and Mr. Robinson, two 
members of the House, were sent down to meet and attend the 
General. In the journey these two gentlemen, sitting opposite in 
