_Mr. Touchett_, “a gentle, refined, fastidious old man, combining consummate shrewdness with a sort of fraternizing good humor.” His feeling about his own position in the world is of the democratic sort. _Ralph Touchett_, philosophical invalid, whose interest in his cousin Isabel is believed by most people to be brotherly. In order that she may not feel obliged to marry for a support, he persuades his father to divide his (Ralph’s) inheritance into two equal parts and give one-half, unconditionally, to Isabel. She is married for this fortune, and, a miserable woman, comes against her husband’s will, to see her cousin die happy because she is with him.--Henry James, Jr., _Portrait of a Lady_ (1881). =Touchfaucet= (_Captain_), in Picrochole’s army, taken captive by Friar John. Being presented to Grangousier and asked the cause of his king’s invasion, he replied, “To avenge the injury done to the cake-bakers of Lernê” (ch. 25, 26). Grangousier commanded his treasurer to give the friar 62,000 saluts (£15,500) in reward, and to Touchfaucet he gave “an excellent sword of a Vienne blade, with a gold scabbard, and a collar of gold weighing 702,000 merks (576,000 ounces), garnished with precious stones, and valued at £16,000 sterling, by way of present.” Returning to King Picrochole, he advised him to capitulate, whereupon Rashcalf cried aloud, “Unhappy the prince who has traitors for his counsellors!” and Touchfaucet, drawing “his new sword,” ran him through the body. The king demanded who gave him the sword, and being told the truth, ordered his guards “to hew him in pieces.”--Rabelais, _Gargantua_, i. 45-47 (1533). =Touching for the King’s Evil.= It is said that scrofulous diseases were at one time very prevalent in the island, and that Edward the Confessor, in answer to earnest prayer, was told it would be cured by the royal touch. Edward, being gifted with this miraculous power, transmitted it as an heir-loom to his successors. Henry VII. presented each person touched with a small coin, called a touch-piece or touch-penny. Charles II. of England, during his reign, touched as many as 92,107 persons; the smallest number (2983) being in the year 1669, and the largest number in 1684, when many were trampled to death (see Macaulay’s _History of England_, xiv.). In these “touchings,” John Brown, a royal surgeon, superintended the ceremony. (See _Macbeth_, act iv. sc. 3.) Prince Charles Edward, who claimed to be prince of Wales, touched a female child for the disease in 1745. The French kings claimed the same divine power from Anne of Clovis, A.D. 481. And on Easter Sunday, 1686, Louis XIV. touched 1600, using these words, _Le roy te touche, Dieu te guerisse_.