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now." His wit and humour served him well on this occasion with many in the house who had passed convivial moments with him, and his life was spared; but he was confined a prisoner in Chepstow Castle for the long period of twenty years, dying there in 1681, at the age of seventyeight.

The Queen of Diamonds.

"The taking of the Holy

League and Covenant." (See plate 19, fig. 3.)

The covenant is being read from an elevation, and the assembly are all holding up their hands, in token of their assent to it. The particulars relating to the advancement of the Scots army into England, and this compact, may be found at length in Rushworth's Collections. It was entered into for the more effectual cooperation of the two countries, and it was carried into effect in the most solemn manner.' It was styled “A solemn League and Covenant for Reformation and Defence of Religion, the honour and happiness of the King, and the peace and safety of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland." I suspect the most prominent figure represented on this card as reading the league and covenant, to be Philip Nye, one of Cromwell's chaplains, and referred to by Marsden in the following passage: "The 15th Sept., 1643, witnessed one of the strangest events in the ecclesiastical history of England, and perhaps of Christendom. The house of commons and the assembly of divines met in the church of St. Margaret, Westminster, and with all the solemnity which prayer and fervent exhortation, and a solemn oath could give, renounced for ever, for themselves and their children after them, the church which reformers had established, and martyrs had sprinkled with their blood. The service was begun with prayer. Mr. Nye then addressed the audience in a speech which lasted for an hour, pointing out the scriptural authority for such covenants, and their manifold advantages. Henderson, one of the commissioners from the assembly of the kirk of Scotland, followed, and confirmed his statements. Then came the closing scene. Nye ascended the pulpit, and slowly pausing at the close of every article, read aloud the solemn league and covenant. The whole congregation, statesmen and divines, the representatives (so they at least maintained, and so in fact they were) of the nation and the Church of England, arose,

1 This league was to effect a nearer union and confederacy with the Scotch nation. Hume says (vii, 522) it "effaced all former protestations and vows taken in both kingdoms". The subscribers, besides engaging mutually to defend each other against all opponents, bound themselves to endeavour, without respect of persons, the extirpation of popery and prelacy, superstition, heresy, schism, and profaneness; to maintain the rights and privileges of parliaments, together with the king's authority; and to discover and bring to justice all incendiaries and malignants. See Rushworth, vi, 478; Clarendon, iii, 373; Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. ii, p. 275 et seq. The solemn league and covenant was burnt by the common hangman, in London and Westminster, Jan. 22, 1660-1, and afterwards throughout the kingdom.

VOL. IX.

20

and, like the Jews of old, lifted up their right hands to heaven, and swore by the great name of God to accept and maintain the covenant."1

"Y'have spous'd the covenant and cause

By holding up your cloven paws.”

(Butler's Hudibras, p. 3, c. 1.)

They afterwards affixed their signatures to the league, inscribed on a roll of parchment; and two hundred and twenty-eight, or, according to some, two hundred and thirty-six names of the commons were attached to it.

The King of Diamonds. "Sir H. Mildmay solicits a Cityzen's Wife, for wh his owne Corrects him.'

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The solicitation forms the foreground of the engraving; and his wife cudgelling him for his infidelity, is strongly pourtrayed behind. Of Mildmay, see ante, p. 133. It is unnecessary to make any further observations on his character. There is an allusion to the subject of this card in the Collection of Loyal Songs, in the "Free Parliament Letany":

"From old Mildmay, that in Cheapside mistook his quean,3
Libera nos, Domine."

Also by Butler in his Satirical Will and Testament of the Earl of Pembroke: "Because I threatened sir Henry Mildmay, but did not beat him, I give fifty pounds to the footman that cudgelled him."

The Ace of Hearts. "A Committee of Godwin, Nye, Peters, and Owen, discovering the Marks of Grace in Ministers."

The committee are seated, with their hats on, whilst the ministers, five in number, are uncovered.

The GODWIN here depicted is THOMAS GOODWIN, "Oliver's creature and trencher chaplain."

PHILIP NYE was also a chaplain of Cromwell's.

HUGH PETERS, a celebrated preacher and most violent republican; and JOHN OWEN, D.D., a divine of considerable attainments. He was educated at Queen's College, Oxford, which he quitted in 1637, dissatisfied with archbishop Laud's innovations. He often preached before the long parliament, and was made chaplain to the lord protector. He was subsequently made dean of Christchurch, and was vice-chancellor of the university of Oxford for five years. He was a learned divine, and of great reputation. His character has been much assailed, and variously represented; but it is much in his favour that, upon his return to London, king Charles sent for him, discoursed with him for two hours, assured him of his favour and respect, expressed himself a friend to liberty of conscience, and admitted that wrong had been done to the dissenters.

(To be continued.)

1 History of the Later Puritans, p. 74. 2 Repulsed by a citizen's wife (ii, 280.)

ON VINCULA.

BY H. SYER CUMING, ESQ.

WITHOUT going back so far as to Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, or early Roman times, it is evident from Cæsar that the tribes of Gaul, Germany, and Britain all employed chains and fetters for confining their captives;1 and we gather from the poems of Ossian that the Caledonians, in the third century, immediately after a victory, bound their prisoners, and fastened them to an oak, or kept them in the hall of the chieftain.

Both fetters and stocks are alluded to in that curious piece of British poetry entitled Hanes Taliesin, the history of Taliesin, or Radiant-front. The bard exclaims:

Mi a fum yn y Gwynfryn,

Yn llys Cynfelyn,

Mewn cyff a gevyn

Undydd a blwyddyn.

I have been in the White Hill,
In the court of Cynvelyn,

In stocks and fetters

For a year and a day.2

It would appear from the Teutonic myths, as handed down to us in the Edda, that metallic shackles were in use among the warlike tribes of Scandinavia at a very remote period. It is said that the gods made cords of the intestines of Nari, and with them bound Loki on to the points of rocks these cords they then converted into thongs of iron. We read also in the Edda, of three fetters, with which the gods attempted to bind the wolf Fenrir, on account of his strength and malignity. The first was a very strong fetter of iron, which they called lading; but the wolf soon burst it, and set himself at liberty. The second was half as strong again as the first; this they denominated dromi; but Fenrir soon snapped this asunder also, which

1 De Bello Gallico, iii, 9; i, 47 and 53; iv, 27.

2 The whole poem is given in Meyrick's History of Cardiganshire, vol. i, p. 65. We may here remark that the Cymraeg gevyn (whence our gyve) appears to be analogous to the Latin vincula, a generic title for all kinds of shackles: the handcuff being distinguished by the name of lawhual (from llaw, the hand); and the ankle-fetter by that of troedawy (from troed, a foot), whence the expression, troedogi, to fetter, to shackle. A fetter was also called berry (from ber, the leg), and cloffrwym (from cloffi, to lame). In the Hiberno-Celtic, shackles are termed geibheal, or geibion, from holding or making fast. Fetters are called cosaracha (from cos, the leg. In the Gaelic, we find words closely allied to the Irish: gyves are called geille; a fetter, geimhle, pl. geibhionn, or geibhlean; and the shackle-chain is denominated geimhlean.

gave rise to the proverb, "to get loose out of lading, or to dash out of dromi," when anything is to be accomplished by strong efforts. The third fetter, called gleipnir, was made by the dwarfs in the country of the dark elves, and was formed of six things,-to wit, the noise made by the footfall of a cat, the beards of women, the roots of stones, the sinews of bears, the breath of fish, and the spittle of birds. With this the gods bound the wolf; and the chain called gelgja, which was fixed to the fetter, they drew through the rock gjoll, and buried it deep in the earth; and there will Fenrir remain bound until ragnarök,—the twilight of the gods.

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The early bards and chroniclers make mention of the chains and fetters of the Teutonic tribes who invaded this country in the middle of the fifth century.1 Aneurin, who was taken prisoner by the Saxons about the year 510, tells us that he composed his famous odes, entitled Gododinau, whilst his limbs were inflamed in the subterraneous house by the iron chain, which passed over his two knees." This chain was called by the Saxons, fetor-wræsn. Besides the shackle-chain, they made use of hand-copse, or hand-cuffs, and fot-copse, or fetters, which were also denominated fotgemet, isern-feter, and fetta-irn, i. e., feet-iron.

Allusions are frequently made, by the old writers, to certain kinds of fetters called rings, which were riveted on by smiths and others, and were secured by locks and keys. The ring-fetter, as its name implies, consisted of a ring of stout iron, having a pivot-hinge on one part, and a circular hole at the end of each limb, through which a strong rivet was passed. In digging for the foundations of the New Palace of Westminster, in 1839, a ring-fetter of this description was discovered at a considerable depth, and is represented in plate 22, fig. 2. It is of massive fabric, and much corroded; and, although it may be difficult to decide its exact age, yet its timeworn condition and place of find prove that it is of considerable antiquityRoman, Saxon, and early medieval reliquiæ having been exhumed in the same locality. St. Leonard, the patron of prisoners, is generally represented holding a chain with a ring-fetter at its end, resembling this specimen.

An early notice of a fetter fastening with a lock occurs

1 See Geoffrey of Monmouth, lib. viii, cap. 8.

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