[7] The story is told by Bonivard himself in his _Chronicles_, and may be found in full detail in the Second Series of Dr. Merle d'Aubigne's volumes on the Reformation, vol. i. chaps. viii. and x. The story that Pecolat, about to be submitted a second time to the torture, and fearing lest he might be again tempted to accuse his friends, attempted to cut off his own tongue with a razor, seems to be authenticated. The whole story is worthy of being told at full length in English, it is so full of generous heroism. [8] "Je n'ai vu ni lu oncques un si grand mepriseur de mort," says Bonivard in his _Chronicles_. [9] The text of this act is given by Chaponniere, p. 156. [10] We have the history of one of them in a brief of Pope Clement VII. addressed to the chapter and senate of Geneva, in which he expresses his sorrow that in a city which he has carried in his bowels so long such high-handed doings should be allowed. One Francis Bonivard has not only despoiled the rightful prior of his living, but--what is worse--has chased his attorney with a gun and shot the horse that he was running away upon: "_quodque pejus est, Franciscum Tingum ejusdem electi procuratorem, negocium restitucionis dicte possessionis prosequentem, scloppettis invasisse, et equum super quo fugiebat vulnerasse_." His Holiness threatens spiritual vengeance, and explains his zeal in the case by the fact that the excluded prior is his cousin. [11] _Advis et Devis des difformes Reformateurz_, pp. 149-151. [12] It is needful to caution enthusiastic tourists that nearly all the details of Byron's poem are fabulous. The two brothers, the martyred father, the anguish of the prisoner, were all invented by the poet on that rainy day in the tavern at Ouchy. Even the level of the dungeon, below the water of the lake, turns out to be a mistake, although Bonivard believed it: the floor of the crypt is eight feet above high-water mark. As for the thoughts of the prisoner, they seem to have been mainly occupied with making Latin and French verses of an objectionable sort not adapted for general publication. (See Ls. Vulliemin: _Chillon, Etude historique_, Lausanne, 1851.) [13] This touching tribute of conjugal affection is all the more honorable to Bonivard from the fact that this wife, like the others, had provoked him. Only a few months before he had been compelled to appear before the consistory to answer for treating her in a public place with profane and abusive language, applying to her some French term which is expressed in the record only by abbreviations. [14] Avolio: _Canti Popolari di Noto._ [15] Guastella: _Canti Popolari del Circondario di Modica._ [16] D'Ancona: _Venti Canti Pop. Siciliani_, No. 5. [17] An "ounce" equals twelve francs seventy-five centimes. [18] Auria: _Miscellaneo_, MS. _segnato_ 92, A. 28, Bib. Com. Palermo. [19] Pitre: _Fiabe, Novelle e Racconti Pop. Sicil.,_ No. cxlviii. [20] Piaggia: _Illustrazione di Milazzo_, p. 249.