VOICES.

EPE etiam & in præliis Fauni auditi, & in rebus turbidis veridica voces ex occulto missæ

esse dicuntur. Cujus generis duo sunt ex multis exempla, sed maxima. Nam non multo ante Urbem captam exaudita vox est à Luco Vestæ, qui à Palatii radice in novam viam devexus est, ut muri & portæ reficerentur: futurum esse, nisi provisum esset, ut Roma caperetur. Quod neglectum cùm caveri poterat, post acceptam illam maximam cladem explicatum est. Ara enim Aio loquenti, quam septam videmus, & adversus eum locum consecrata est.

i. e. Often even in battles have the Gods of the woods been heard to speak, and in troublesome times, when the affairs of governments have gone wrong, and been in disorder and turmoil, voices have been known to steal upon the ears of persons, that came as it were from a corner, but they knew not whence, and told them important truths. Of which kind there are out of a great many, two examples, and those indeed very rare and extraordinary. For not long before the city was taken, a voice was heard from

the grove of Vesta, which went from the foot, and basis of the palace, sloping and bending into a new road, that the city walls and gates should be repaired: and that unless care was taken of it, the consequence would be, that Rome would be taken. This being omitted, when provision might have been made, was explained after that most signal and dreadful overthrow. For the altar, which we see enclosed, and that fronts that place, was a consecrated altar.

Neque solum deorum voces Pythagorei observaverunt, sed etiam hominum, quæ vocant omina

i. e. Neither did the Pythagorean Philosophers observe the voices of Gods only, but also those of men, which they called Omens.

"Nero & lo'n dit qu'on entendoit un son de trumpette dans les collines d'alentour, des gemissemens le tombeau de sa mere."

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Nero, they say, heard the sound of a trumpet among the hills and the rocks round about him, and groans over the tomb of his mother.

In the life of King Henry IV. of France, written by the Arch-Bishop of Paris, it is recorded, that Charles IX. (who caused the massacre) was wont to hear screaches, like those of the persons massacred.

St. Augustin heard a voice, saying, TOLLE, LEGE, take,

read. He took up his bible, and dipt on Rom. 13. 13. "Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and "wantonness," &c. And reformed his manners upon it.

One Mr. Smith, a practitioner of physic at Tamworth in Warwickshire, an understanding sober person, reading in Hollinshead's Chronicle, found a relation of a great fight between Vortigern and Hengest, about those parts, at a place called Colemore: a little time after, as he lay awake in his bed, he heard a voice, that said unto him, "You "shall shortly see some of the bones of those men and "horses slain, that you read of :" he was surprized at the voice, and asked in the name of God, who it was that spoke to him. The voice made answer, that he should not trouble himself about that; but what he told him should come to pass. Shortly after, as he went to see Colonel Archer (whose servants were digging for marle) he saw a great many bones of men and horses; and also pot-sherds; and upon the view it appeared to be according to the description in Hollinshead's Chronicle; and it was the place where the fight was; but it is now called Blackmore.

This was about the year 1685, and I had the account from my worthy friend and old acquaintance Thomas Marriet of Warwickshire, Esq., who is very well acquainted with Mr. Smith aforesaid.

Extracts out of the book entitled Relation de la Nouvelle France, 1662, and 1663, 12.

"Les Sauvages avoient eu de presentiments aussi bien

que les Francois, et de cet horrible Tremble-terre. Voicy "la deposition d'une sauvage agé 20. fort innocente, "simple, & sincere. La nuict du 4 ou 5 de Febr. 1663

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estant entirement éveillée, & en plein jugement, assise comme sur mon seant, j'ay entender une voix distincte "& intelligible, qui m'a dit, Il doit arrive aujourdhuy "de choses extrangees, la Terre doit tremble. Je me “trouveray pour lors saisie d'une grand frageur, parce que je ne voyois personne d'ou peut provinir cette voix : Remplie de crainte, ja taschay à m'en dormir auec assez "de peine: Et le jour estant venu, je dis a mon mary cequi m'estoit arrivé. Sur le 9, ou le 10 heure de mesme jour, allant au bois pour buscher, à peine j'estois "entrée en la Forest que la mesme voix se fit ·

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en

tendre, me disent mesme chose, & de la mesme facon que "la nuicte precedente: La peur fuit bien plus grande, moy estant tout seule."

i. e. The wild inhabitants, as well as the French, had presages of that dreadful earthquake. See here the depositions of a wild Indian, about twenty-six years of age, who was very innocent, simple, and sincere. On the night of the 4th or 5th of February, in the year 1663, being perfectly awake, and in sound judgment, and setting up as it were in my bed, I heard a distinct and intelligible voice, that said to me, There will happen to day many strange things. The earth will quake and tremble. I found myself seized with an extraordinary fear, because I saw no person from whom the voice could proceed. I, full of terror, with great difficulty, endeavoured to compose myself to sleep.

And as soon as it was day I told my husband what had happened to me. About nine or ten of the clock the same day, going to a forest a wood-gathering, I was scarce got into the brow of the forest, but I heard the same voice again, which told me the same thing, and in the same manner as it had done the night before. My fear was much greater this time, because I was all alone. She got her burden of wood, and met her sister who comforted her, to whom she told this story, and when she came to her father's caben, she told the same story there; but they heard it without any reflections.

La chose en demeure la, jusquez à 5. ou 6 heures "du soir du mesme jour, où un tremblement de Terre "survenant, ils reconnurent par experience, que cequ'ils "m'auoient intendu dire avant Midy, n'estoit que trop

i. e. -The matter rested there, till about five or six of the clock in the evening of the same day, when an earthquake coming suddenly upon us; experience made them recollect and acknowledge that, what they had heard me say before noon, was but too true.

"Envoyée au R. P. André Castillon Provincial de la "Province de France par les Missioners de Peres de la "Compagnie de Jesu. Imprimé à Paris, 1664."

i. e. Sent to the reverend father Andrew Castillon, provincial of the province of France, by the missioners of the fathers of the Society of Jesus. Printed at Paris, 1664.