Here open pastures, we entered a pine forest. we presently arrived at a curious place; the road crosses a narrow gorge by a bridge which spans the rift far above the torrent. Against the rock, close by the bridge, and partly over the road, is a little chapel with a house adjoining, and on it is the inscription "Columba mea in foraminibus petræ." It is evidently a favourite resort of pilgrims, as the road hence to Modane is wide and well-paved. On leaving the wood we made our way across the fields to that town, reaching the "Lion d'Or" after about five hours and three quarters quick walking. Here, though the accommodation is by no means proportionate to the charges, we fared better than at Bardonnèche.

The northern opening of the tunnel is on the steep hill side, 328 feet above the valley, near the village of Fourneaux, rather more than a mile below Modane. As at Bardonnèche, so here are large workshops and a machine for compressing the air, worked by a waterfall; but the contractors are now erecting an apparatus close to the Arc, which will be moved by large water-wheels, turned by the streami. As the river is fed by glaciers, there is no danger of the supply failing during a drought. Places were constructed for six wheels, but at the time of our visit only two were in working order; each was furnished with a pair of condensing cylinders. Once a fortnight they cease from work in the tunnel, so that the engineers may take observations to prevent any deviation from the right direction. This is managed in the following manner: before beginning the work the exact direction that the tunnel would follow was laid down by a series of signal-posts over the mountain. Two small observatories were then erected, one opposite to each opening, and in each of them was placed a transit instrument. A lamp is hung against the rock, exactly in the middle of the excavation, the telescope is pointed at one of the signal posts, and then turned (of course always in the same vertical plane) until it looks into the tunnel; if the lamp is seen exactly in the middle of the field of view, all is well; if to the right or left, they are going wrong.

We were furnished with an introduction to the resident engineer, who most courteously walked with us to the end of the tunnel; as it was the day for the observations, we had the place all to ourselves. The rock above is a dark slate, resembling very much that seen at Bardonnèche, but harder; still the tunnel is vaulted along nearly the whole length, but with stone instead of brick. The supply of water on this side is less abundant, so that we walked to the end with little trouble. At that time they had reached a distance of 1244 yards

from the entrance. Owing to the hardness of the rock it was found at first that the mines were liable to explode like cannon, without shattering it; this difficulty is overcome as follows a number of holes very near together are first bored in the middle of the face of the rock; then a number of others, arranged in a ring, are made all round at a greater distance. The mines in the centre are first fired, blowing a sort of pit in the rock; then, when the outer mines are exploded, it yields at the weakest part, namely, on the sides of this pit, and so the required effect is produced. The miners were advancing at the rate of a little more than a yard a day at each end; in this way they would complete the undertaking in twelve years. They hoped, however, soon nearly to double their rate, and to finish in about seven. If hand labour alone had been used the average advance would have only been about one and a half feet a day.

The benefit that this stupendous work will bring to France and Italy will be very great. To say nothing of the increased passenger traffic, goods will then be sent from the one country to the other easily and rapidly, avoiding the long and laborious passage of the Mont Cenis as well as unloading and reloading at St. Michel and Susa, When, regardless of snowstorm or avalanche, the train in less than half an hour passes under the Alps, it will indeed be a change from the time when the Carthaginian troops toiled painfully over the chain, and, after winning their way through treacherous foes, perished by snow-drift and precipice before they could reach the sunny plains on which they had gazed from the ridges above the plateau of the Mont Cenis.* .

THE CASE OF MONS. D'EGVILLE,

· THIS remarkable case of circumstantial evidence, though generally known to the curious in such matters who have searched into West Indian records, is as yet, we believe, entirely new to the English public. The details, however, might never have been laid before them had not the original papers been recently discovered in the Provost-marshal's office in Barbadoes, and copied and forwarded to the writer. Besides the intrinsic interest attaching to the story itself as a mere anecdote, there is the object of adding another instance to the list of

*The example of France and Italy seems likely to be fullowed by Switzerland. A proposition for constructing a railway over the Simplon Pass has been seriously discussed. In this, however, the tunnel would neither be so long nor so far below the surface as the one which we have been describing. In the Mechanics' Magazine, Jan. 8, 1864, we further read an account of a locomotive, designed by Mr. J. B. Fell, for ascending steep inclines. It has been tried on a gradient of 1 in 12, the same as that on the Mont Cenis road, and seems to have succeeded very well.

executions carried out upon the evidence of circumstance alone, and of exhibiting some of the strong as well as the weak points which characterise this peculiar form of judgment. Perhaps a close and careful comparison of numerous instances of circumstantial evidence might assist in moulding into something like a system the various and sometimes almost contradictory inferences deduced during trials of this character, and in bringing them under a legal form which might be applied when similar occasions required. At present it is well known that the law of circumstantial evidence is very uncertain, and the story before us is a most conspicuous instance.

In the year 1824, Michael Harvey Peter William Henry D'Egville, resident in the island of Barbadoes, West Indies, dancingmaster, was brought up before the local June Sessions charged with having caused the death of his wife by administering to her poison in the form of arsenic.

The name of D'Egville has been always famous as the title of a family of dancingmasters and mistresses: there were some of the family, I believe, in Cheltenham when I was a boy, and I certainly was instructed in the art by a D'Egville, though whether the name was assumed as a recommendation or not I cannot say The unhappy man of whom I write had, though a Frenchman, migrated to Barbadoes with the view of teaching dancing, and was, it is reported, very successful. After a somewhat long resi dence in the island, he married a lady whose family name was Llewellyn, though whether maid or widow at the time of her union with D'Egville is not shown. The Frenchman was not a man of good character: he was addicted to debauched society and to drink.

In many of his tipsy fits he was wont to strike and ill use his wife, though he never seemed to cherish the least ill feeling towards her. He was not therefore malicious, though he was quarrelsome in his cups. Still, his ill usage of Mrs. D'Egville was so continuous and excessive that the long-suffering wife determined upon a separation. This was effected without any scene of violence or recrimination between the parties; and while the dissolute husband pursued at uncertain intervals his profession of dancing master, the relieved wife lived at some distance, out of his and harm's way, as was supposed. It is to be particularly noticed that, though separated from each other, no ill feeling was to be discerned between Mr. and Mrs. D'Egville; on the contrary, the wife was in the habit of sending to her depraved partner little attentions in the form of dainties, such as she knew he was attached to, as for instance, fruit, soup, rare fish, &c., &c. D'Egville recognised these

attentions, and (occasionally) returned them, though the fluctuation of his gains at times prohibited an equivalent interchange of gifts. Now D'Egville was aware that his wife had not only signified her intention of leaving to him a sum of money at her death, but had actually executed the instrument by which he was to be entitled at her demise to a bequest of 500l. old Barbadoes currency, i.e., about 3301. sterling. It was proved that D'Egville had bought arsenic some few days previously at a druggist's shop, and being asked if it was required for rats, said, “Yes! and I shouldn't care much if they were two-legged ones!" Observe, that to be in the possession of arsenic was nothing of itself, for there generally was a supply in every house in the island for the extermination of rats and wood-ants; indeed, I can vouch for the fact of my grandfather keeping a very large quantity in the medicine chest for periodical poisonings of wood-ants which infested one of the mills on his estates, so that no stress can be laid on the mere purchase of the arsenic.

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✓ Mrs. D'Egville was particularly fond of toasted cheese, and at times of the year cheese was a very scarce article in the island. However, things had been prosperous with the Frenchman of late; for he purchased a piece, bad it prepared, and sent it to his wife by the hands of a little mulatto boy, with these instructions :- Tell her to eat it herself, and not to give any of it to Miss Llewellyn." This was Mrs. D'Egville's sister, who lived in the same house with her.

Mrs. D'Egville was found dead in her bed next morning; Miss Llewellyn was dead also, and two or three of the negro servants were ill, though they ultimately recovered.

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An inquest was immediately held, and Dr. Cutting tested the contents of the stomachs of the deceased, the rejected matter from the negroes who were suffering at the time, and the remainder of the cheese which was left in the dish. In all was arsenic found.

D'Egville was arrested, and brought up at the June, sessions in 1824. It was the interim between the death of the late Attorney-General Beckles and the appointment of his successor, and Mr. Coulthurst (acting attorney-general) prosecuted. Mr. Hinds defended the prisoner, resting his defence on the fact that a link in the chain of evidence was wanting. This meant of course the evidence of the little mulatto boy who had carried the cheese to Mrs. D'Egville, for negro evidence could not be received in court at that time.

The jury, after long consultation, came into court and said that it was impossible that they could ever agree, nine of their number being for an acquittal and three for a verdict of

"Guilty; so they were discharged, and the prisoner remanded to the next sessions. Meantime, Samuel Hinds was appointed AttorneyGeneral. When the sessions arrived (December, 1824), Mr. Hinds declined to prosecute, ou the ground of having formerly defended the prisoner, so the prosecution devolved upon Mr. Solicitor-General Griffith. The jury were empanelled, the evidence and all other proceedings carried on from the last sessions were read over to them, and after a short deliberation they. brought in a verdict of "Guilty."

Extract from the minute-book of the Court of Grand Sessions held Dec. 17th, 1824

Michael Harvey Peter William Henry D'Egville was then brought up and set to the bar to receive judgment; when, upon being asked if he had anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed upon him, he delivered in a paper writing, signed by himself and Mr. Moore, as his counsel, protesting, alleging, and pleading that he, the said D'Egville, was put on his trial at a former sessions for the same (offence, and, therefore, prayed that judgment might be arrested and stayed against him. Mr. Attorney-General Hinds objected to the same, on the ground that the former trial was not complete, inasmuch as no verdict was rendered, and inasmuch as the prisoner had on the present trial pleaded not guilty," and put himself upon the country, he was by that plea barred from any other. The opinion of the court being taken, the said paper writing was rejected, but the court declared themselves ready to hear anything, by way of reasons in arrest, which the prisoner or his counsel might think proper to offer, when Mr. Moore moved that the judgment in the cause of the King v. M. H. P. W. H. D'Egville" be arrested, on the following reasons, namely, because it appears by the proceedings of the last Court of Grand Sessions, holden for the body of this, island, in the month of June last, in the Town Hall, in Bridgetown, in the said Island of Barbadoes, that the said M. H. P. W. H. D'Egville was arraigned on an indictment preferred against him by our Sovereign Lord the King for the murder by poison of his wife Susanna D'Egville, whereto he pleaded not guilty," and that a jury of twelve men was empanelled, sworn, and charged to try, and he, the said M. H. P. W. H. D'Egville, was actually put on his trial on the said indictment for the said offence, and whereto he, by his counsel, entered upon, disclosed, and made his defence; and further, because that the said jury, so sworn, empanelled, and charged to try him, the said M. H. P. W. H. D'Egville, afterwards actually retired and went out to the petit jury-room, and remained several hours deliberating on their verdict; and further, because the offence whereof he hath been tried at the present sessions, and the offence for which he was put on trial, as before mentioned, at the Second Court of Grand Sessions, in the month of June last, are one and the same offence, and not divers, which said reasons being taken into the serious consideration of the court, were rejected, and sentence of death was accordingly pronounced.

This extract shows the procedure of the court (which was acting upon the condemnatory evidence alone) to have been crippled by the absence of the one link in the evidence exculpatory, viz., the testimony of the mulatto boy who had been entrusted with the cheese. The common precaution of inquiry into the conduct

and motives of the person through whose hands the poisoned cheese had last passed was thus cast aside, and this being not received, the poor dancing-master returned to prison without a hope.

Here is a copy of his death warrant.

GEORGE THE FOURTH, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, &c. To our Provost-Marshal of our said Island of Barbadoes, or his lawful deputy, greeting:

WHEREAS Michael Harvey Peter William Henry D'Egville, late of the parish of St. Michael, in the island aforesaid, yeoman, now detained in your custody in our gaol of our said island, was, at a Court of Grand Sessions of Oyer and Terminer, General Gaol Delivery, and General Sessions of the Peace, held for the body of 'our said island, and bégún on Tuesday, the fourteenth day of December, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-four, and so continued, and held by special adjournment de die in diem, on the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth days of the said month, at the Town Hall, in the parish of St. Michael, in our island aforesaid, indicted and arraigned for the murder of Susanna D'Egville, and thereupon was tried, convicted, and, in due form of law attainted, and now stands adjudged unto death, of which judgment execu tion remains to be done. We therefore command, and by these presents firmly enjoin you, that in and upon Monday the fourteenth day of this instant February, between the hours of nine and twelve in the forenoon of the same day, you carry the said M. H. P. W. H. D'Egville to the place of execution within the gaolyard, in the town of St. Michael, in our island aforesaid, and there cause him the said M. H. P. W.-H. D'Egville to be hanged by the neck until he be dead, and that this you fail not to do upon peril thereon to ensue.

Witness.-His Excellency Sir Henry Warde, K. C.B., &c, his Majesty's Captain-General and Governor, Commander-in-Chief, &c., of this island, &c., at Government House, this seventh day of February, in the sixth year of our reign.

(Signed) HENRY WARDE.

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Some years afterwards, when D'Egville's name was forgotten, a negro man who had been a slave in the possession of Mrs. D'Egville, and who was, by her father's, will, to receive his manumission, confessed that he had received the cheese from the mulatto boy and had put in the arsenic, as he was aware that his freedom was to follow upon his mistress's death. The link wanting (as the learned counsel observed), namely, what had passed between the time the cheese was put out of D'Egville's hands and its delivery into those of his wife, was now supplied. The negro's name was Christian, and he went, as was usual, by the family namo. of Llewellyn, All this he confessed upon his death-bed, to the great discomfiture of those who had condemned the wretched dancing-master, and to the shame of the system of refusing any, evidence, though from negro lips, in a trial where life and death depended upon evidence alone. R. REECE, Jun.

BEFORE St. Eloi rose to saintship, and while he still lived in the flesh, he was much like the rest of the world, save and except that he was very honest; his integrity, in fact, was the origin of his greatness. In those days he was a working jeweller, and won the attention of Clotaire the Second, King of France, by his honesty in respect to a certain lot of gold and precious stones which had been intrusted to his care. Clotaire knew the value of such a man, and forthwith made him his minister. The office of premier is not generally the stepping-stone to saintship, but Eloi did his duty as best he could in those troublous times, and the world recognised a good man even then, and set him up as an example to his fellows. Had his influence obtained earlier, he would probably have prevented the king from taking such savage vengeance on Brunhilda, the enemy of his mother and his house. This unfortunate woman, whose loves and crimes are detailed in the "Nibelungenlied," was subjected to the cruelest tortures for three days; after which, she was tied to the tail of a wild horse, and her wretched carcase torn to pieces in the presence of the soldiers of the army. Society at this time was a chaos of savage virtues and fierce vices, of warring creeds and superstitious ignorance; the dominating effect of brute force threatened the world with a return to barbarism; but, undaunted by the mass of evil, there were some good men and true, who, like Eloi, sought to maintain right against might. He framed a code of laws, which, if well administered, would have averted from the throne of France the misfortunes which were brought about by the encroachment of the nobles and the weakness of the kings.

historian, "the thick woods were full," Other chroniclers mention that these wild places were also infested by "fierce bears." Under these adverse influences the power of Christianity waned, and men sought to propitiate the spirit of evil, the visible ruler of the world,-religion itself partook of the darkness of the age. No parish in the east of London

was ever more in need of missionary efforts than this district, to which the good St. Eloi turned his steps. The wildest superstitions were rife in the country, successive conquests had indiscriminately united the races of north and south, and the fables of diverse nations were confounded in one common sink of ignorance and superstition. The mysterious rites of the Druids still obtained a partial observance, while the cruel demi-gods of Scandinavia divided with Baal and Jupiter the credit of ruling human destinies and of directing the powers of nature. Mingled in this rude and savage mass were remnants of a higher civilisation, relics of the Roman possession. Nor was Christianity itself utterly without its witnesses; a goodly leaven had been left by the early missionaries of the Gospel, who had visited this country in the time of Constantine.

St. Eloi most probably had helped to institute the order of Foresters, whose duty it was to assist the inhabitants of the Dunes in suppressing the brigandage of their day. Defended by this band of rural police, they began to re-establish themselves in bourgs and villages, and resumed their agricultural pursuits, not forgetting that in the old time the hams and geese from this part of the world had been sent to Rome, and had been voted exquisite by the very gourmands at the Imperial table.

is now, it has suffered a sea change; moreover, in the old time the inland parts were covered with woods and marshes, the moëres have been drained and the forests cut down, giving place to one of the most industrial departments of France. The waste places of creation were St. Eloi's special charge, and armed with the gospel and the authority of the Pope, he came to convert the people. The fishermen on the coast listened with avidity to the preaching of the bishop, and flocked to be baptised. St. Eloi, greatly rejoiced at his success, forthwith commenced building a church on the Dune, in the language of the time, Duyn kerk, hence the modern Dunkerque, notable in our own

No. 276.

One of the first sermons which St. Eloi preached in the church of the Dunes has been preserved, and is of great historical interest, as it forms a very curious picture of the superstitions of the time,-superstitions which were so deeply rooted in the minds of the people that they may still be traced in the customs and observances of the Dunkerquois. St. Eloi begins his homily by charging the newly baptised to abstain from the sacrilegious customs of the pagans. "Do not," he says, "in any case of sickness consult enchanters or wonder workers, pay no regard to auguries or of to divers ways of sneezing; do not draw indications of the future from the songs of birds; do not be careful about days, for all days are for the work of God; do not wait for such and such phase of the moon; do not take any part in the diabolical songs and dances practised on St. John's day towards the epoch of the solstice; do not invoke the name of the Devil, Neptune, Pluto, or

were

tree of the cross, may be proved by attentively examining the emblems used in the carved pulpits of the Low Countries, especially at Brussels and Louvain. The eagle and the squirrel retain their fabled position, and the tree of life itself, from whose roots the serpent issues, closely resembles the ash. The population amongst which St. Eloi worked evidently peculiarly impressionable, as seagoing people always are: witness the frequency of the ex-voto offerings in the pilgrimage and other chapels specially used by the maritime classes. The Christianity of this early period lent itself to the necessities of its new converts; the old beliefs would not yield entirely to the pure teachings of St. Eloi, but perpetuated themselves in curious medieval customs, some of which are still retained, such as the annual procession at Furnes, near Dunkerque. showing the permanence of tradition, there is at the latter place, at the time of the carnival, an exhibition kept up representing a gigantic

And,

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you on Thursday; you must not light lamps on the ruins of pagan temples, neither at fountains, nor at the meeting of four cross roads; nor consecrate your beasts to demons by making them pass through excavations in the earth. Women must hang round their necks pieces of amber in pronouncing the name of Minerva; if the moon hides herself do not call her back by cries, do not swear by sun or moon; if any infirmity attacks you, you must not run to magicians or enchanters, nor demand help from fountains, trees, or roads that cross; do not suffer any one to put images of feet in the cross ways, if you find them throw them in the fire, and cut down the trees which the pagans have called d sacred." Who does not recognise in many of these things the origin of the lucky and unlucky omens of our day? It is curious to observe how superstitions are retained in the symbolic belief of nations; names and words are changed, but the thought has often an older root than its received history. highly poetical idea among the Scandinavian races, that the great ash tree Yggdrasil represented the universe, has been singularly interwoven with some of the medieval traditions. This tree of the world was supposed ed to rise high above the hall of the triple Norns, under its roots was the cold land of Hela, the place of torture where dwelt the frost giants; the middle earth was the land of men; the farseeing eagle sits at the top, and Ratatosk the squirrel runs up and down, the messenger of the eagle to the everlasting worm at the abyss. That this idea has become mixed up with

The

have fought for long years against the Karles. The people dance round the Reuse, and salute him in mockery; he is represented as devouring incredible quantities of food, and to be furious if the people do not supply his inordinate wants. This very probably expresses the long sustained struggles between the nobles and the commons.

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The first effects of Christianity in those ages were of infinite importance to the people. Society was then composed of two elements, the strong and the weak, the conqueror and the conquered, the master and the serf, the oppressor and the oppressed. Between these essentially hostile parties the Church interposed. Violence itself was stayed in the presence of the altar or before the tomb of a saint, the church became a sanctuary, a very help in the time of trouble, a power which rescued the weak, and put down the mighty from their seats. Under the shelter of the sacred roof the poor hid the gatherings of their scanty harvests; it was their common barn, where the hungry were filled with good things."

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The relics of the saints, together with the leechcraft of the monks, cured many of the "ills that flesh is heir to." The angelica, the herba benedicta, and the vervain, sacred to the Druids, were all cultivated with care by the priests, who thus made themselves the trustees of Nature's secrets, and became a help to the helpless. The sight of the toe-nail of St. Nicholas, together with a decoction of blessed herbs, has cooled the fevered lips of many a The shadow of the church had power to

one.