seemed to prevail who should show her the greatest attention. But the utmost civilities could make no lasting im→ pression on a mind so destitute of sensibility.

Among the worthless objects that partook of the lady's occasional benefactions, was the notorious Semple, whom she liberated from the prison of Calais, by compounding with his creditors.

Of the qualities of the duchess of Kingston, the most predominant seemed to be a masculine kind of courage. She had always a brace of loaded pistols at the side of her bed, and her female domestics had orders never to enter het chamber unless the bell rang, lest by sudden surprise she might be induced to fire at them. In her travelling carriage there were fire-arms, and once, on her route to Petersburgh, she discharged a case of pistols at a party supposed to have inimical designs. This heroism she is said to have inherited from her mother.

The duchess enjoyed through life a sound state of health. Except an attack at Petersburgh, when an epidemic disorder prevailed, and the fever with which she was seized on her return from Rome to meet her trial, she experienced not a day's illness. The method she took to preserve health, was that of inuring herself to hardiness. The severest cold neither discomposed her feelings, nor prevented her from prosecuting a journey. She admitted fires in her apartments, rather from fashion than inclination. For a slight indication of the gout, she instantly plunged her feet into cold water, and bleeding, whether proper or not, was the universal remedy to which she had recourse in any casual complaint.

In person, she was rather under the middle stature; her limbs were not remarkable for symmetry; her motions were not graceful; nor was she endowed with the sensibility and retiring delicacy of manner, which, of all others, is woman's most captivating quality. Her features were agreeable, her eyes piercing, and her complexion glowed with the indications of health and vivacity. On the whole, her appearance was extremely engaging; and had the virtues and accomplishments of her mind been answerable to her exterior endowments, she must have commanded universal esteem as well as love and admiration. But the vanity, the inconstancy, the caprice, and eccentricity of her conduct prevailed in so

intolerable a degree, that notwithstanding an immense fortune, she lived almost without a friend, and died entirely unregretted.

MATTHEW LOVAT.

MATTHEW LOVAT presents an extraordinary and deplorable instance of religious melancholy. Born at Casale, a hamlet belonging to the parish of Soldo, in the territory of Belluno, of poor parents, employed in the coarsest and most laborious works of husbandry, and fixed to a place remote from almost all society, his imagination was so forcibly smitten with the view of the easy and comfortable lives of the rector and his curate, who were the only persons in the whole parish exempted from the labors of the field, and who engrossed all the power and consequence, which the little world wherein Matthew lived had presented to his eyes, that he made an effort to prepare himself for the priesthood, and placed himself under the tuition of the curate, who taught him to read and to write a little. But the poverty of his family was an effectual bar to his desire; he was obliged to renounce study for ever, and to betake himself to the trade of a shoemaker.

Having become a shoemaker from necessity, he never succeeded either as a neat or expeditious workman. The sedentary life, and the silence to which apprentices are condemned in the shops of the masters abroad, formed in him the habit of meditation, and rendered him gloomy and taciturn. As age increased, he became subject in the spring to giddiness in his head, and eruptions of a leprous appearance showed themselves on his face and hands.

Until the month of July, 1802, Matthew Lovat did nothing extraordinary. His life was regular and uniform; his habits were simple, and nothing distinguished him, but an extreme degree of devotion. He spoke on no other subject than the affairs of the church. Its festivals and fasts, with sermons, saints, &c. constituted the topics of his conversation. It was at this date, that in imitation of the early devotees, he determined to disarm the tempter by mutilating himself. He ef

fected his purpose without having anticipated the species of celebrity which the operation was to procure for him; and which compelled the poor creature to keep himself shut up in his house, from which he did not dare to stir for some time, not even to go to mass. At length, on the 13th of November, in the same year, he went to Venice, where a younger brother, named Angelo, conducted Matthew to the house of a widow, the relict of Andrew Osgualda, with whom he lodged, until the 21st of September, in the following year, working assiduously at his trade, and without exhibiting any signs of madness. But on the above mentioned day, he made an attempt to crucify himself, in the middle of the street called the Cross of Biri, upon a frame which he had constructed of the timber of his bed; he was prevented from accomplishing his purpose by several people, who came upon him just as he was driving the nail into his left foot. His landlady dismissed him from her house, lest he should perform a like exploit there. Being interrogated repeatedly as to the motive for his selfcrucifixion, he maintained an obstinate silence, except, that he once said to his brother, that that day was the festival of St. Matthew, and that he could give no farther explanation. Some days after this affair, he set out for his own country, where he remained a certain time; but afterwards returned to Venice, and in July, 1805, lodged in a room in the third floor of a house, in the street Delle Monache.

Here his old ideas of crucifixion laid hold of him again. He wrought a little every day in forming the instrument of his torture, and provided himself with the necessary articles of nails, ropes, bands, the crown of thorns, &c. As he foresaw that it would be extremely difficult to fasten himself securely upon the cross, he made a net of small cords capable of supporting his weight, in case he should happen to discharge himself from it. This net he secured at the bottom, by fastening it in a knot at the lower extremity of the perpendicular beam, a little below the bracket designed to support his feet, and the other end was stretched to the extremities of the transverse spar, which formed the arms of the cross, so that it had the appearance, in front, of a purse turned upside down. From the middle of the upper extemity of the net, thus placed. proceeded one rope, and from the point at which the two

spars forming the cross intersected each other, a second rope proceeded, both of which were firmly tied to a beam in the inside of the chamber, immediately above the window, of which the parapet was very low, and the length of these ropes was just sufficient to allow the cross to rest horizontally upon the floor of the apartment.

These cruel preparations being ended, Matthew stripped himself naked, and proceeded to crown himself with thorns; of which two or three pierced the skin which covers the forehead. He next bound a white handkerchief round his loins and thighs, leaving the rest of his body bare; then, passing his legs between the net and the cross, seating himself upon it, he took one of the nails destined for his hands, of which the point was smooth and sharp, and introducing it into the palm of the left, he drove it, by striking its head on the floor, until the half had appeared through the back of the hand. He now adjusted his feet to the bracket which had been prepared to receive them, the right over the left; and taking a nail five French inches and a half long, of which the point was also polished and sharp, and placing it on the upper foot with his left hand, he drove it with a mallet which he held in his right, until it not only penetrated both his feet, but entering the hole prepared for it in the bracket, made its way so far through the tree of the cross, as to fasten the victim firmly to it. He planted the third nail in his right hand as he had managed with regard to the left; and having bound himself by the middle to the perpendicular beam of the cross by a cord, which he had previously stretched under him, he set about inflicting the wound in the side with a cobbler's knife, which he had placed by him for this operation, and which he said represented the spear of the passion. It did not occur to him, however, at the moment, that the wound ought to be in the right side, and not in the left, and in the cavity of the breast, and not of the hypocondre, where he struck himself transversely two inches below the left hypocondre, towards the internal angle of the abdominal cavity, without, however, injuring the parts which this cavity contains. Whether fear checked his hand, or whether he intended to plunge the instrument to a great depth, it is not easy to determine: but there were ob

served near the wound several scratches across his body, which scarcely divided the skin.

These extraordinary operations being concluded, it was now necessary, in order to complete the execution of the whole plan which he had conceived, that Matthew should exhibit himself upon the cross to the eyes of the public;and he realized this part of it in the following way. The cross was laid horizontally on the floor, its lower extremity resting upon the parapet of the window, which was very low, then raising himself up by pressing upon the points of his fingers, (for the nails did not allow him to use his whole hand either opened or closed,) he made several springs forward, until the portion of the cross which was protruded over the parapet, overbalancing what was within the chamber, the whole frame, with Matthew upon it, darted out at the window, and remained suspended outside of the house by the ropes which were secured to the beam in the side. In this predicament the poor fanatic stretched his hands to the extremities of the transverse beam which formed the arms of the cross, to insert the nails into the holes which had been prepared for them; but whether it was out of his power to fix both, or whether he was obliged to use the right on some concluding operation, the fact is, that when he was seen by the people who passed in the street, he was suspended under the window, with only his left hand nailed to the cross, while his right hung parallel to his body, on the outside of the net. It was then eight o'clock in the morning. As soon as he was perceived, some humane people ran up stairs, disengaged him from the cross, and put him to bed. A surgeon of the neighborhood was called, who made them plunge his feet into water, introduced tow by way of caddis into the wound of the hypocondre, which he assured them did not penetrate into the cavity, and after having prescribed some cordial, instantly took his departure.

At this moment, Dr. Ruggieri, professor of clinical surgery, hearing what had taken place, instantly repaired to the lodging of Lovat, to witness with his own eyes a fact which appeared to exceed all belief. When he arrived there, accompanied by the surgeon Pagononi, Matthew's feet, from which there had issued but a small quantity of