CONTENTS.

-Of incantation, of prayers for children or kindred, of the ufe of dogs in driving away devils, of damnable fins, of the cock the guardian of the world, of eternal duration &c. 529 of the miffion of Zoroafter, and his preternatural power 539 Account of the periodical papers ib, -Defects in the measures of the late minifter

Gentleman's Magazine:

For NOVEMBER 1762.

A

turn of mind; he therefore became difcontented and melancholy, and endeavoured to diffipate the gloom of his mind by playing at billiards, and other expenfive pleafures, of which his father often expreffed his difapprobation with fome warmth, and once threatened, that if he did not alter his conduct, he would turn him out of doors;' or expreffed himself in words to that effect. The young man's difcontent and melancholy ftill increased, and he feems to have entertained thoughts of putting an end to his life, as he was continually felecting and reading paffages from Plutarch, Seneca, Montaigne, and many other authors on fuicide, and could fay by heart a French tranflation of the celebrated foliloquy in Hamlet, which he frequently repeated, with fome paffages from a French TragyComedy, called Sidney, to the fame

effect.

An authentic Narrative of the Death of
Mark Anthony Calas, and of the
Trial and Execution of his Father,
John Calas, for the fuppofed Murder
of his Son. From the French.

OHN CALAS was
a merchant of the
city of Thoulouse;
where he had been
fettled, and lived in
good repute, forty
years: He married
an English woman of B
French extraction, her grand-mother
being of the family of Garde-Montef
quieu, and related to the chief noblefe
of Languedoc.

C

Calas and his wife were Proteftants, and had five fons, whom they educated in the fame religion: But Lewis, one of the fons, fome time fince became a Roman Catholic; his father's maid- fervant, a religious Catholic, who had lived thirty years in the family, having greatly contributed to his converfion; but the father was fo far from expreffing any refentment or ill-will on the occafion, that he fettled an annuity upon Lewis, and ftill kept the maid in his family.

D

On the 13th of October 1761, M. Gober la Vaiffe, a young gentleman about nineteen years of age, the fon of La Vaiffe, a celebrated advocate of Toulouje, having been fome time at Bourdeaux, came back to Toulouse to fee his father; but finding that his father was gone to his country houfe, at fome distance from the city, he went to feveral places, endeavouring to hire a horfe to carry him thither. No horfe, however, was to be hired; and about five o'clock in the evening he was met by John Calas, the father and the eldest fon Mark Anthony, who was his friend. Calas, the father, invited him to fupper, as he could not fet out for his father's that night, and La Vaiffe confented. All three therefore proceeded to Calas's houfe together, and when they came thither, finding that Mrs Calas was ftill in her own room, which fhe had not quitted that day, La Vaille went up to fee her. After the first compliments, he told

her

In Oober 1761, the family feems
to have confifted of the father John
Colas and his wife, one woman fer-
vant, Mark Anthony Calas the eldest
fon, and Peter Calas, the fecond fon. E
Marc Anthony had been educated as a
fcholar, with a view to his becoming
an advocate or counsellor at law;
but he was not able to get himself
admitted as a licentiate, because he
muft either have performed fome acts,
which, as a Proteftant, he could not F
have performed; or have purchaled
certificates, which he either thought
unlawful, or found too expensive:
He could not follow the bufinels of a
merchant, becaufe he was not quali-
fied for it by his education, nor his

Narrative of the Death of Mark Anthony Calas.

510

her, he was to fup with her by her husband's invitation; the expressed her fatisfaction, and a few minutes afterwards left him, to give fome orders to her maid: When that was done, she went to look for her fon Anthony, whom the found fitting alone in the fhop, very penfive; the gave him fome money, and defired him to go and buy fome Roquefort cheese, he being always the market man for cheese, as he knew how to buy it good better than any other of the family.

She then returned to her guelt La Vaiffe, who very foon after went again to the livery-ftable, to fee if any horse was come in, that he might fecure it for the next morning.

In a fhort time Anthony returned, having bought the cheele, and La Vaife alfo coming back about the fame time, the family and their guest fat down to fupper in a room up one pair of ftairs, the whole company confifting of Calas the father and his wife, Anthony and Peter Calas, the fons, and La Vaife the guest, no other perfon being in the house except the maidfervant, who has been already mentioned.

A

C

On the ground floor of Calas's houfe was a fhop and a warehoufe; the warehouse was divided from the shop by a pair of folding doors: When Peter Calas and La Vaiffe came down ftairs into the fhop, they were extremely fhocked to fee Anthony hanging in his thirt, from a bar which he had laid across the top of the two folding doors, having half opened them for that purpose. Upon difcovery of this horrid fpectacle, they fhrieked out, and the cry brought down Calas the father, the mother beBing feized with fuch a terror as kept her trembling in the paffage above. The unhappy old man rushed forward, and taking the body in his arms, the bar to which the rope that fufpended him was fattened, flipped off from the folding doors of the warehouse, and fell down: Having placed the body on the ground, he loofed and took off the cord, in an agony of grief and anguith not to be expreffed, weeping, trembling, and deploring himfelf and his child. The two young men, bis fecond fon and La Vaiffe, who had not had prefence of mind enough to attempt taking down the body, were ftanding by, ftupid with amazement and horror; in the mean time the mother, hearing the confufed cries and complaints of her husband, and finding no-body come to her, found means to get down ftairs. At the bottom the found La Vaiffe, and haftily and eagerly demanded what was the matter; this question rouzed him in a moment, and instead of anfwering her, he urged her to go again up ftairs, to which, with much reluctance, the confented; but the conflict of her mind being fuch as could not be long borne, the fent down the maid, Jannet, to fee what was the matter; when the maid difcovered what had happened, the continued below, either because the feared to carry an account of it to her miftrefs, or because the bufied herself in doing fome good office to her mafter, who was till embracing the body of his fon, and bathing it in his tears. The mother there

D

E

It was now about feven o'clock; the fupper was not long; but before it was over, or, according to the French expreffion, when they came to the desert, Anthony left the table, and went into the kitchen, which was on the fame A or, as he used to do; the maid atked him if he was a cold; he answered, Quite the contrary; I burn; and then left her: In the mean time his friend and the family left the room they had fupped in, and went into a bed-chamber: the father and M. La Veiffe fat down together on a sofa ; the younger fon Peter in an elbow. chair, and the mother in another chair; and without making any enqairy after Anthony, continued in converfation together tili between nine and ten o'clock, when La l'aile took his leave, and Peter, who had fallen afleep, was awaked to attend him with G a light.

F

H

This little narrative contains a picture of domeftic life, which must be altogether rew to an English reader: A merchant who hed bred his eldelt fon a fcholar, in order to have him called to the bar, fends this fon out to buy cheese, having only one fervant in the family, who, after preparing the fupper, fets it upon the table at even o'clock, and leaves the company to wait upon themfelves: This fupper, however, had what they call a defest, but before it is over, Anthony, the eldest

fon, the particular friend of the gueft, leaves the table, and goes into the kitchen; no enquiry was made about him, though the company continued together above two hours af terwards; they spent their evening in a bedchamber, having left the eating room with the table still covered, as foon as they had fup ped: fon Peter goes to fleep, and is not dif turbed till he is wanted to wait upon the guest with a light.

fore