by Ricci; a very fine portrait of pope Gregory, Mars and Venus, and the Holy Family by Titian; Vulcan by Albert Durer; and a Bohemian fhepherdefs, by Rembrandt.

marble, and in the center of the frie are pigeons in white marble, polift ed. Upon it ftands Jupiter Serapis In the ornaments above is the marri age of the fea, by Canaletti. The On the left fide of the faloon is room is hung with excellent Bruffel the dining-room, which is twenty-tapestry, done after the defigns of eight feet by twenty-one, and is ele- Teniers. gantly furnished with pictures, bufts, and flabs. The chimney-piece is fupported by fluted columns of Sien-fine flabs of blood jafper; another

The dreffing-room is thirty fee by twenty-four, and has two very

na marble; its cornice is of Sienna and white marble, and in the middle are grapes of polished white. The fabs are of Cicilian jafper, and here is an urn of the finest green granite, with two bufts, one of Marcus AureHus, and the other of a Bacchanal The pictures are, two beautiful land-by fcapes, by Zucarelli; a fine piece of This houfe contains a confiderable ruins, by P. Panini: Cupid and number of other ftatues, bufts, and Pfyche, by Tintoretto; the Prodigal pictures, which we have not room Son, which has amazing expreffion, to mention; we fhall therefore leave by Spagnolett; and Chrift at Emma-it, and briefly mention the buildings us, by Paul Veronefe. Upon the chimney piece are three bronzes, Laocoon, Caffius, and Brutus.

exceeding elegant, an oval of agate, furrounded by modern Mofaic. The chimney-piece is an elegant one of white marble, and upon it are a Venus, a Mercury, and a horfe. There are in this room an elegant cabinet of Amboyna wood, and two landscapes Canaletti....

ported by Ionic columns of black and yellow marble; and in the corners of the room are pilafters of the fame. In niches over the doors

in the park. There is here an Ionic temple, which has four porticos, and forms, a handfome room The drawing room is twenty-one fitted up chiefly with marble. The feet fquare; the flab is of verd anti-cornices of the door cafes are fapque, and the pavement Mofaic. It is alfo adorned with an urn of porphyry, and a confiderable number of pictures. In the antique gallery are many flab of the most curious anti-are the bufts of Vefpafian, Fauftina, que marble, fome inlaid with different Trajan, and Sabina. The floor is kinds of marble and precious tones. in different compartments of marble, Here are the buffs of Cato, M. Junius and the room is crowned with a Brutus, Caius Cæfar, Geta, Virgil, dome, ornamented with white and Homer, and Hercules; a baffo releivo gold, but the windows are mean. of Victory, the attitude and drapery of which are excellent: a faryr holding a goat, &c. There are alfo feveral fine pictures by Raphael, Rubens, Baffan, &c.

There is in another part of the park a maufoleum, which is a circular building furrounded by a colonnade of Tufean columns, and crowned with a dome. Over the The ftate bed-chamber is twenty-vault is a circular room, called a eight feet long, and twenty-four chapel, thirty feet in diameter, by broad, and has a very elegant chim-fixty-nine high. Eight Corinthian ney-piece, fupported by Corinthian pillars fupport the cornice. columns, the flafts of Sienna mari ble, and the capitala and bafes of white; the cornice is alfo of white

There are feveral other orta

mental buildings about the park, in the file of Vanburgh,

RE

REMARKABLE NARRATIVE. | a rich merchant in Lisbon, who

carried on a confiderable trade and correfpondence in the Brafils. Don Juan being allowed to take this merchan's name, it was generally fuppofed that he was his natural fon, and a clandeftine affair of love hav ing been carried on between him and the merchant's daughter Jofe pha, who was an only child, the became pregnant, and a medicine being adminiftered to her by the hands of Don Juan, fhe died in a few hours after, with all the fymptoms of a perfon who had taken

lady furvived her death but a few days, and the father threw himself into a convent of Mendicants, mak◄ ing over by deed of gift the whole of his property to the fuppofed murderer.

A Portuguese gentleman, who I fhall beg leave to defcribe no otherwife than by the name of Don Juan, was lately brought to trial for poifoning his half fifter by the fame father, after he was with child by him. This gentleman had for fome years before his trial led a very foli-poifon. The mother of the young tary life at his cattle in the neighbourhood of Montremos, a town on the road between Lisbon and Badajos, the frontier garrifon of Spain. I was shown his caftle, as I paffed through the difmal country, about a mile distant from the road, in a In this account there feemed a bottom furrounded with cork trees, ftrange obfcurity of facts, for fome and never faw a more melancholy made ftrongly to the crimination of habitation. The circumstances which Don Juan, and the laft mentioned made against this gentleman were circumstance was of so contradictory fo ftrong, and the story was in fuch a nature as to throw the whole into general circulation in the neigh-perplexity; and therefore to combourhood where he lived, that al- pel the prifoner to a farther elucida though he laid out the greatest part tion of the cafe, it was thought of a confiderable income in ats of proper to interrogate him by torture. charity, nobody ever entered his gates to thank him for his bounty, or folicit relief, except one poor father of the Geronzmiter convent in Montremos, who was his confeffor, and acted as his almoner at difcre tion.

A charge of fo black a nature, involving the crime of incest as well as murder, at length reached the ears of justice, and a commiffion was fent to Montremos to make enquiry into the cafe. The supposed crimínal made no attempt to efcape, but readily attended the fummons of the commiflioners.

Upon the trial it came out upon the confeffion of the prisoner, as well as from the depolition of witneffes, that don Juan had lived from his infancy in the family of VOL. XXI.

Whilt this was preparing, Don Juan, without betraying the leaft alarm upon what was going for ward, told his judges he would fave them and himself fome trouble if they would receive his confeffion upon certain points to which he fhould truly fpeak, but beyond which all the tortures in the world could not force one fyllable.

He faid he was not the fon, as was fuppofed, of the merchant, with whom he lived, nor allied to the de ceafed Jofepha any otherwife than by the tendereft ties of mutual affection and a promife of marriage, which, however, he acknowledged had not been folemnized. That he was the fon of a gentleman of confiderable fortune in the Brafils, who left him an infant in the care of the merchant R

in

question; that the merchant for reafons best known to himself chofe to call him by his own name, and this being done in his infancy he was taught to believe that he was an orphan youth the fon of a difiant relation of the perfon who had adopt. ed him; he begged his judges therefore to obferve that he never underflood Jofepha to be his fifter; that as to her being with child by him he acknowledged it, and prayed God forgiveness for an offence which it had been his intention to repair by marriage; that with refpect to the medicine he certainly did give it to her with his own hands, for that fe was fick in confequence of her pregnancy, and being afraid of creating alarm or fufpicion in her parents, had required him to order certain drugs from an apothecary, as if for himfelf, which he accordingly did, and he verily believed they were faithfully mixed, inafmuch as he ftood by the man while he prepared the medicine, and faw every ingredient feparately put in.

ferved to the prifoner, that accor
ing to his confeffion he had faid
did die by poifon, and yet by th
anfwers he had now given it shoul
seem as if he meant to acquit ever
perfon on whom fufpicion coul
poffibly reft; there was, however
one interrogatory left, which, un
natural as it was, he would just pu
to him for form's fake only, befor
they proceeded to greater extre
mities, and that question involved
the father or mother of the lady.-
Did he mean to impute the horrid
intention of murdering their child
to the parents? No, replied the
prifoner, in a firm tone of voice, I
am certain no fuch intention ever
entered the hearts of the unhappy
parents, and I fhould be the worst
of finners if I imputed it to them.
The judges upon this declared with
one voice he was trifling with the
court, and gave orders for the rack;
they would, however, for the last
time, demand of him, if he knew
who it was that did poifon Jofepha,
to which he answered, without hefi-
tation, that he did know, but that
no tortures fhould force him to de-
clare it. As to life he was weary
of it, and they might difpofe of it
as they thought fit.

The judges thereupon afked him if he would take it on his confcience to fay the lady did not die by poifon. Don Juan burfing into tears for the first time, answered, to his eternal forrow, he knew he did die by poifon. Was that poifon contained in the medicine the took ?-It was.Did he impute the crime of mixing the poifon, in the medicine to the apothecary, or did he take it on himfelf? Neither the apothecary nor himfeif was guilty.-Did the lady from a principle of flume (he was then alked) commit the act of fuicide, and infufe the poifon without his knowledge? He farted into horror at the queftion, and took God to witnefs that he was innocent of the deed. The judges feemed now confound-fweat ftarted in large drops upon his ed, and for a time abitained from any farther interrogatories, debating the matter amongst themfelves by whispers, when one of them ob

They now took this peremptory recufant, and ftripping him of his upper garments laid him on the rack; a furgeon was called in, who kept his fingers on his pulfe, and the executioners were directed to begin their tortures; they had given him one fevere ftretch by ligatures fixed to his extremities, and paffed over an axle which was turned by a windlafs; the train upon his mufcles and joints by the action of this infernal engine was dreadful, and nature fpoke her fufferings by a horrid crash in every limb; the

face and bofom, yet the man was firm amidst the agonies of the machine, not a groan cicaped, and the head, who was fuperintendant

of

Remarkable Narrative.

of the hellifh work, declared they | friend. might encreafe his tortures upon the next tug, for that his pulfe had not varied a stroke, nor abated of its frength in the fmallest degree.

The formentors had now begun a fecond operation with more violence than the former, which their devilish ingenuity had contrived to vary, fo as to extort acuter pains from the application of the engine to parts that had not yet had a full fhare of the agony; when fuddenly a monk rushed into the chamber and called out to the judges to defift from torturing that innocent man, and take the confeffion of the murderer from his own lips. Upon a fignal from the judges, the executioner let go the engine at once, and the joints fnapped audibly into their fockets with the elasticity of a bow. Nature funk under the revulfion, and Don Juan fainted on the rack. The monk immediately with a loud voice exclaimed, Inhuman wretches, delegates of hell, and agents of the devil, make ready your engine for the guilty, and take off your bloody hands from the innocent, for behold (and fo faying he threw back his cowl) the father and the murderer of Jofepha!"

The whole affembly started with aftonishment; the judges ftood aghaft, and even the demons of torture rolled their eye-balls on the monk with horror and difmay.

123

He was confided to my charge, being then an infant, and my friend followed his fortunes to our fettlements in the Brafils. He refided there twenty years without vifiting Portugal once in the time; he remitted to me many fums of money on his fon's account; at this time a hellish thought arofe in my mind, which the distress of my affairs, and a paflion for extravagance infpired of converting the property of my charge to my own account. I imparted thefe fuggeftions to my unhappy wife, who is now at her accompt; let me do her juice to confefs fhe withstood them firmly for a time; ftill fortune frowned upon me, and I was failing in my credit every hour; ruin ftared me in the face, and nothing ftood be tween me and immediate difgrace but this infamous expedient.

"At length perfuafion, menaces, and the impending preffure of neceffity conquered her virtue, and the acceded to the fraud. We agreed to adopt the infant as an orphan fon of a relation of our name; I maintained a correfpondence with his father by letters pretending to be written by the fon, and I fupported my family in a fplendid extravagance by the affignments I received from the Brafils. At length the father of Don Juan died, and by will bequeathed his fortune to me in failure of his fon and his heir. I had already advanced fo far in guilt, that the temptation of this contingency met with no refistance in my mind, and I determined upon removing this bar to my ambition, and propofed to my wife to fecure the prize which fortune had hung within our reach, by the affaffination

to in

"If you are willing, fays he the judges, to receive my confeffion whilft your tormentors are preparing the rack for the vileft criminal ever ftretched upon it, hear me. If not, fet your engine to work without further enquiry, and glut your appetites with human agonies, which once in your lives you may now inflict with justice."

Proceed, faid the fenior judge. "That guiltlefs fufferer who now dies infenfible before my eyes, (faid the monk) is the son of an excellent father, who was once my deareft

of the heir. She revolted from the idea with horror, and for fome time her thoughts remained in fo difturbed a state, that I did not think it prudent to renew the attack. After fome time the agent of the deceafed arrived in Lisbon, from

R 2

the