Curiosities of Olden TimesBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Curiosities of Olden Times
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Curiosities and wonders
_The Restitution of Pluto_ is a book most interesting, not only on account
of the erudition and rare acquaintance with natural philosophy which it
displays, but also from the stately and vigorous writing of the authoress.
It contains passages glowing with energy, and is composed in a style of
dignified and manly eloquence. Maybe the publication of this work opened
the eyes of the Cardinal to the fact that the State certainly was indebted
to this illustrious couple for services gratuitously rendered during
upwards of ten years. The most convenient method of paying them was that
of silencing the voices which cried for acknowledgment, and thus stifling
the claims on the royal exchequer. Slanderous reports were circulated
relative to the Beausoleils, and they were accused of various crimes. The
suspicion of magic, which had attached to them from the time of the
inquisition of the provost of Morlaix, was revived, and the prejudices of
the age tended to give it force to overthrow the noble pair. Old
superstitions concerning gnomes of the mines and subterranean demons were
not yet extinct. The Baroness herself believed in them, and in one of her
works speaks of her having encountered some of them. In the mines of
Neusol and Chemnitz in Hungary, she says, “I saw little dwarfs about three
or four palms high, old, and dressed like miners, that is, clothed in an
old suit, and with a leather apron, a white tunic and cap, a lamp and
staff in hand--terrible spectres to those who are unaccustomed to mines.”
Several times already, as appears from her writings, she and her husband
had been exposed to the violence of the rude and ignorant rustics, who
thought their scientific instruments means for conjuring up the devil, and
the authorities were, as we have seen at Morlaix, quite prepared to second
the popular superstition when profit could be obtained thereby. The
divining rod, then much in vogue in Germany, was used by the Baron and his
wife, who had strong belief in its magnetic properties, and the employment
of it may have given some colour to the charges now raised against them on
all sides of being necromancers in league with evil spirits.
In 1642, by order of Cardinal Richelieu, the Baron de Beausoleil was cast
into the Bastille, and the Baroness was shut up in the state prison of
Vincennes, without trial and sentence. Thus, after forty years of labour
together in the same pursuits, in the same manner of life, in the decline
of their days this worthy couple were separated, to spend the rest of
their life in prison. Such was the reward accorded to them for their
devotion to the cause of science, and the recompense for the benefits they
had afforded to France.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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