DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0476
430
RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY.
what is saved from the rains. The growth of the hill it-
self is only underwood and grass, which in the dry season
is often set on fire, and will continue burning three or
four days, which has the effect of fertilizing any culti-
vated spots ; the salts being washed down by the rains into
the lower grounds ; a practice that is much followed in all
the adjacent countries.
Horrible instance of Religious Bigotry.
HADFIELD, the father of Mrs. Cosway the cele-
brated female artist, was the proprietor of an hotel at
Leghorn, and married a woman possessing superior quali-
fications both of mind and body. This lady became the
mother of a numerous offspring, not one of which survived
the period of infancy. Mrs. Hadfield deeply lamented
the loss of her children, and while she was pregnant
of Mrs. Cosway, her grief at the probable fate of her
expected infant was so violent that her life was despaired
of. The nurse who had attended her with her former
children, seeing her in this extremity, threw herself on
her knees before her, and said : “ If you will make a vow
not to bring up your child in the religion of heretics, but
will dedicate it to our holy church, I will pray to the Vir-
gin to grant it life.” Mrs. Hadfield, in a paroxysm of
maternal anguish, took the oath required, and the child
was born. The fatal period passed, and the infant conti-
nued to increase in strength and beauty. The grateful
mother loaded the nurse with benefits and blessings, and
the babe was brought up on the lap of the murderer of
its brothers and sisters; for the mistaken old woman af-
terwards confessed on her death-bed, that, struck writh
horror at the existence of so many heretics, she had poi-
soned all the children as soon as she could find a fit op-
portunity. “ I would have done any thing,” continued
she, “ to rid the world of so many embryo monsters!!”
END OF vol. in.
RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY.
what is saved from the rains. The growth of the hill it-
self is only underwood and grass, which in the dry season
is often set on fire, and will continue burning three or
four days, which has the effect of fertilizing any culti-
vated spots ; the salts being washed down by the rains into
the lower grounds ; a practice that is much followed in all
the adjacent countries.
Horrible instance of Religious Bigotry.
HADFIELD, the father of Mrs. Cosway the cele-
brated female artist, was the proprietor of an hotel at
Leghorn, and married a woman possessing superior quali-
fications both of mind and body. This lady became the
mother of a numerous offspring, not one of which survived
the period of infancy. Mrs. Hadfield deeply lamented
the loss of her children, and while she was pregnant
of Mrs. Cosway, her grief at the probable fate of her
expected infant was so violent that her life was despaired
of. The nurse who had attended her with her former
children, seeing her in this extremity, threw herself on
her knees before her, and said : “ If you will make a vow
not to bring up your child in the religion of heretics, but
will dedicate it to our holy church, I will pray to the Vir-
gin to grant it life.” Mrs. Hadfield, in a paroxysm of
maternal anguish, took the oath required, and the child
was born. The fatal period passed, and the infant conti-
nued to increase in strength and beauty. The grateful
mother loaded the nurse with benefits and blessings, and
the babe was brought up on the lap of the murderer of
its brothers and sisters; for the mistaken old woman af-
terwards confessed on her death-bed, that, struck writh
horror at the existence of so many heretics, she had poi-
soned all the children as soon as she could find a fit op-
portunity. “ I would have done any thing,” continued
she, “ to rid the world of so many embryo monsters!!”
END OF vol. in.