The Kiaya was greatly astonished, and ordered a body of horfe to accompany him, and, if refufed admiffion, to force the convent. The Cadi took part with the merchant, and the affair was referred to the law. The ground where the bundle had been buried was opened, and a dead body found, which the unhappy father difcovered to be that of his youngest daughter; the other was found confined in the convent, and almoft dead: fhe revealed a fcene of fuch abominable wickedness, as makes human nature hudder, and to which the, like her fifter, was about to fall a victim. The pretended faint being feized, acted her part with firmness, and a prosecution was commenced against the priests and the patriarch. The enemies of the latter united to effect his ruin, in order to fhare his fpoils; and he was fufpended and depofed. The affair was removed to Rome in 1776, and the Society de Propaganda, on examination, discovered the most infamous fcenes of debauchery, and the moft horrible cruelties. It was proved that Hendia procured the death of nuns, fometimes to get poffeffion of their property, at others, because they would not comply with her defires: that this infamous woman not only communicated, but even confecrated the hoft and said mass ; that she had holes under her bed, by which perfumes were introduced at the moment fhe pretended to be in extacy, and under the influence of the Holy Ghoft; that he had a faction who cried her up, and publifhed that he was the mother of God returned upon earth, and a thoufand other extravagancies.--Notwithstanding this, fhe retained a party powerful enough to prevent the fevere punishment the merited; he has been fhut up in different convents, from whence he has frequently efcaped. In 1783, fhe was prefent at the vifitation of Antoura, and the brother of the Emir of the Druzes was defirous to give her her liberty. Numbers ftill believe in her fanctity; and, but for the accident of the traveller, her greateft enemies would not have

doubted

POVERTY OF LEARNED MEN.

159

doubted it. What must we think of reputations for piety, when they may depend on fuch trifling circumstances?

Remarkable Inftances of the Poverty of Learned Men. FORTUNE has rarely condefcended to be the companion of merit. Even in these enlightened times, men of letters have lived in obfcurity, while their reputation was widely spread; and have perished in poverty, while their works were enriching the bookfellers.

Homer, poor and blind, reforted to the public places to recite his verses for a morfel of bread.

The facetious poet Plautus gained a livelihood by aflifting a miller.

Xylander fold his Notes on Dion Caffius for a dinner.

Alde Manutius was fo wretchedly poor, that the expence of removing his library from Venice to Rome made him infolvent.

To mention those who left nothing behind them to fatisfy the undertaker, were an endless task.

Agrippa died in a workhouse; Cervantes is fuppofed to have died with hunger; Camoens was deprived of the neeeffaries of life, and is believed to have perished in the streets.

The great Taffo was reduced to fuch a dilemma, that he was obliged to borrow a crown from a friend to fubfift through the week. He alludes to his diftrefs in a pretty fonnet which he addresses to his cat, entreating her to affist him during the night with the luftre of her eyes

"Non avendo candele per ifcrivere i fuoi verfi !"

having no candle by which he could fee to write his verfes. The illuftrious Cardinal Bentivoglio, the ornament of Italy and of literature, languished, in his old age, in the

most

moft diftrefsful poverty; and having fold his palace to fatisfy his creditors, left nothing behind him but his reputation.

Le Sage refided in a little cottage on the borders of Paris; and fupplied the world with their most agreeable romances; while he never knew what it was to poffefs any moderate degree of comfort in pecuniary matters.

De Ryer, a celebrated French poet, was constrained to labour with rapidity, and to live in the cottage of an obfcure village. His bookfeller bought his Heroic Verses for one hundred fols the hundred lines, and the smaller ones for fifty fols.

Dryden for lefs than three hundred pounds fold Tonfon ten thousand verses, as may be feen by the agreement which has been published.

Purchas, who, in the reign of our firft James, had spent his life in travels and study to form his Relation of the World; when he gave it to the public, for the reward of his labours, was thrown into prifon at the fuit of his printer. Yet this was the book which, he informs us in his Dedication to Charles the Firft, his father read every night with great profit and fatisfaction.

Savage, in the preffing hour of diftrefs, fold that eccentric poem, The Wanderer, which had occupied him several years, for ten pounds.

Even our great Milton, as every one knows, fold his immortal work for ten pounds to a bookfeller, being too poor to undertake the printing it on his own account: and Otway, a dramatic poet in the first class, is known to have perifhed with hunger.

Samuel Boyce, whofe Poem on Deity ranks high in the scale of poetic excellence, was abfolutely famished to death; and was found dead, in a garret, with a blanket thrown over his fhoulders, and faftened by a fkewer, with a pen in his hand!

Chatterton,