1863.) 
having overtaken” his company, oné of 
them afked what o’clock it was. This 
made him feel for his watch, which he im- 
mediately remembered having left; they 
all rode back with him, and near the place 
met a countryman, and afked him whe- 
ther he had feen a watch?——** What’s 
that?’” faid he, having never feen one be- 
fore. They told him it was a thing that 
clicked and ftirred ‘** O! ho! (lays he) 
Ill thew it you—I have mauled it, and 
made it give over clicking, with my ftick. 
You may come near it, it will not hurt 
you now, I warrant you.” He had bat- 
tered the watch to pieces, thinking it fome 
poifonous animal in the grafs. 
This reminds me of the Highlander, 
who, having founda watch, took it home 
with great care and caution, imagining it 
fome curious non-deicript animal. When 
the clicking had ceafed, from the chain 
being down, he called in his neighbours 
to fee it, telling them that it had died, 
notwithftanding all his care, at two o’clock 
that morning. 
LOUVOIsS, AQUA-TOFANA, and the 
CHAMBRE ARDENTE,. 
Francis Michel Tellier was born at 
Paris in 1641, and was regularly trained 
to the office of War-minifter, of which he 
obtained the furvivorfhip in 1664, and 
executed the duties in 1667, when Louis 
XIV. undertook the invafion of Flander-. 
Through the influence of his father and 
predeceffor, who had projeét<d the revo- 
cation of the Edié& of Nactes, he was 
created, early in life, Marquis of Louvois. 
He infituted military fchools for cadets, 
and military hofpitals for veterans, and 
was fuppofed, until the death of Colbert, 
to have liberal views ard minifterial abi- 
lity. It was then perceived that the lofti. 
nefs of his manners, and the rigor of his 
temper, accompanied a vindiétive pride 
and a trampling cruelty: and that his un- 
gracious referve concealed the indecifion 
otf confcious incapacity. He was an in- 
tolerant difciplinarian, and fo unkind of 
foul, that, in his difpatches to Marfhat 
Boufflers, he wrote:—J/ the enemy burns 
one village of your government, burn ten 
of theirs. M-re retaliation was too mild 
a revenge for his heart: he feemed- to 
think that an enemy’s land was to be en- 
tered as a country of aflaffins:—thar a 
truce fhould be put to modified hoftility : 
and that all war which is not battle cught 
to be military execution. His infruc- 
tions prepared the deteftable ravage of the 
Palatinate. 
With Louvois every confideration was 
fudfervient to the care of his  perfonal 
Monrury Mac. No. 95. 
From the Port-folio of a Man of Letters. 515 
power: his zeal for regal defpotifn was 
employed to procure the keys of the Baf- 
tilie ; hig folicitude for eeclefiaftical pri- 
vileges, to direct clerical animofity againft 
the enemies of his influence. Among the 
moft remarkable engines of his tyranny 
was the Chambre Ardente. In alliance 
with the Marchionefs of Montefpan, and 
with the Jefuit Tellier, his relation, who 
both affiftted him to govern the King, he 
obtained the eftablifhment of this politi- 
cal inquifition. It confifted of a fort of 
committee of the private council, and fig~ 
nalized the fhort years of-its duration 
(1679 and 1680) by perfecutions in thofs 
times unparalleled. The incident which 
fupplied a pretext for its inftitution was 
this. . 
The Marchionefs of Brinvilliers,was at- 
tached to a captain of cavalry, named 
Godin de Sainte-Croix. Her father, 
Dreux d’Aubray, the lieutenant of police, 
in order to interrupt this intrigue, com- 
mitted the captain to the Baftille, where 
he met with one Exili, an Italian apothe- 
cary, of whom he learnt to prepare poi- 
fons. On his enlargement, in concert, 
it is faid, with his miftrels, he gave a 
dofe to her father and brother, which oc- 
cafioned their deaths. Sainte-Croix was 
arrefted, wih his valet and accomplice, 
Lachaufiée: the mafter fwailowed poifon, 
the fervant was brokeon the wheel. Won- 
derful ftories were circulated of the mor- 
tal boxes he left behind, of the glafs. 
ma{k in which he manufaétured the means 
of extin&tion, and of the adjurations with 
which he bequeathed to his. miftrefs the 
produce of his wicked alchemy. The 
Marchionefs had retired, it was rumour- 
ed, into England; but Degrais, an ac- 
tive officer of police, tracked her to a’ 
convent at Liege, obtained accefs, in the 
difguife of an Abbé, prevailed on her by 
his a‘drefs to quit the inviolable afyluin, 
and betrayed her, in the moment of dal- 
jiance, to the fbirs of the governments, 
She was brought to Paris, and accuied of 
having affurmed the drefs of a Nun to try 
experiments as to the ftrength of her 
poifons in the various hofpitals attended 
by tne Siflers of M-rcy. She was con- 
demned, induced to con'efs the moft hor- 
rible charges, led to exécuticn under a 
hope of pardon, beheaded, and then burn- 
ed. ¢ 
Einpoifonment immediately became the 
univerial topic. Nothing but lepcrous 
ditilments was peured into the porches of 
the ear. Tellicr, and the other enemies 
of that fort of licerature which, during 
the minority cf Louis XLV. had revived, 
3 U wth 
