in town, but more particularly for introducing me to those worthy and ingenious gentlemen with whom we passed our last evening.

I am, Sir, with all esteem,
Your most obliged friend,
And humble servant,
W. WARBUrton.

For Mr. M. Concannen,
at Mr. Woodward's, at
the Half-moon, inFlect-
street, London.

ONCINI, or as he was called

CON by his own countrymen, Conchini, and by the French, Conchine, the son of a clerk in a public office at Florence, who, entering into the domestic service of Mary de Medicis, previously to her marriage with Henry the fourth, King of France, accompanied that princess to Paris. By the graces of his person, and a pleasing address, having secured the queen's favor, and won the affections of Leonora Galligai, a daughter of her majesty's nurse, he became her husband, and by this connection added considerably to his influence with the royal widow, who was of the same age with Leonora, and had been inordinately fond of her from their earliest infancy.

1

The attachment of Concini, on this occasion, must have been founded on motives of political

interest, or intellectual esteem, for his wife was grossly deficient in personal beauty.

Their patroness being appointed Queen Regent, during the minority of Lewis the thirteenth, Concini became in fact, if not in form, Maire de Palais, an office so hatefully administered in the carlier ages of the French monarchy, in a word, governor of the palace as well as the person of the young king; he was ennobled, the dignity of Marshal of France was conferred upon him, and he accumulated enormous wealth, securing for himself, his family, and dependants, the highest and most lucrative appointments.

But the vain and ambitious Florentine was not satisfied with possessing these advantages; he could not be content without an ostentatious display of them in every place, and on every occasion; this weakness, which a court favorite more than any man ought always to avoid, this weakness appeared in the splendor of his dress, the magnificence of his houses, the profusion of his table, and the costly liveries of three hundred attendants.

Such conduct was unpardonable in a man, who on other occasions, discovered no want of acuteness and good sense; it can

only

1

Brutus confessed, that after frequently wavering he was irrevocably fixed in his purpose of assassination, by Cæsar's receiving the senate sitting; we may judge of its effect on a stern republican, when an ancient writer and a moderate man mentions this circumstance in the following strong terms;-præcipuam, et inexpiabilem invidiam.

The death of Concini is said to have been determined on, by his appearing with his head covered in the king's presence.

This imprudent folly, more than real crimes, proved his ruin; it excited the king's jealousy, and provoked the hatred of the people, whose prejudices against foreign favorites were soon converted into malignity, abhorrence, and detestation.

These expressions may appear too strong, but they scarcely convey an adequate idea of the sentiments of rancour and aversion universally entertained against him; this I believe will be the opinion of most readers, when informed of certain extraordinary proceedings, which I mean presently to relate,

Another circumstance hastened his destruction; the king was now approaching to manhood, and indignant at the dishonorable state of vassalage in which he had been long confined, which had deprived him of improving intercourse, customary amusements, and necessary exercise. Although little more than sixteen years old, the king quickly saw that in the present exasperated state of the public mind, to dismiss and to punish Concini would be acceptable to the majority of his subjects; but he knew at the same time, that a numerous and powerful party were attached to him by blood, by gratitude, and interest.

The sovereign in this instance conspired against the minister; private meetings were held, and after mature consideration it was resolved to remove the presumptuous Italian, who, though a stranger of obscure birth, thus arrogantly presumed to establish an uncontrouled ascendency over king, nobles, and people.

This disgraceful business was undertaken by one of those tools who are ready on most occasions to execute the purposes of despotism and potism and vengeance; the unpopular favorite was way-laid as he passed to the Louvre, and received the contents of a pistol in his heart.

A de

A detachment of soldiers was sent to seize the wife of the murdered man; it being the dead hour of night, Leonora was found in her bed, from which the miscreants dragged her with many circumstances of brutality and indecorum. After plundering the apartments of her papers, her money, and jewels, they conveyed her to the Bastile; a prosecution was commenced against her for practising Jewish mysteries and other crimes, which it is not easy to read or to relate without a smile or a sigh.

The prisoner was accused of rising before day-break at every return of the Jewish festivals, and of chaunting select passages from the Psalms of David; of sacrificing a cock, as is a custom with Jews on the day of the feast of reconciliation; of consulting magicians and astrologers, who professed judicial mathematics, particularly the beldame Isabel, a sorceress by trade, to know, whether by virtue of her art any information could be procured concerning the future events of Leonora's life, or any of her family.

It was further added in aggravation of the charges, that a crucifix, generally kept in Galligai's room, was always removed during the celebration of the unlawful ceremonies, which the of

VOL. IV.

fender and her associates practised; and that the parties concerned had prepared themselves by previous diet; the witnesses being asked of what this consisted, replied "The combs of white cocks, carefully chosen, and the kidnies of young rams."

It was also proved in evidence against her, that a book of strange characters was found in the apartment, by which she was enabled to influence the thoughts and inclinations of persons of quality; that philacteries, periapts, amulets, and ligatures, for suspending strange substances to her neck, were discovered in her cabinet, and that little images of wax were concealed in a coffin lined with black velvet.

These and other charges of a similar kind seem inconsistent with the character given of the favorite and confident of Mary de Medicis by a grave historian, who relates an answer given by the unhappy woman to one of her judges.

Being asked by what arts she had attained and preserved so irresistible an influence over the queen, Leonora replied "By that that power, which strong understandings always exercise over weak minds."

These words, if actually spoken, prove that the charges brought against Leonora were malicious

I

ly

The offender being found guilty was beheaded in the early part of the seventeenth century, and her body burnt to ashes.

Such was the fate of Concini and his wife; yet I have sometimes doubted whether the crimes (their Judaizing and witchcraft out of the question) whether the crimes they committed, were in any respect greater than those of their predecessors and successors in similar situations; they were favorites at court, they gratified their ambition, oppressed their opponents, and accumulated wealth, as most favorites in all ages have done; but Concini, as I have before observed, wanted prudence, moderation, and good sense, in the enjoyment of those advantages he possessed, and appears to have treated with neg lect the woman to whom he was indebted for his prosperous ele

The life and death of Concini are familiar to most general readers, and I have two reasons for repeating a well known story: first, that I might have an opportunity of proving, as I have endeavoured to do, that he was not that tyrannical and hateful monster which he has been sometimes described; and secondly, to shew that the treacherous method of dispatching an opponent, adopted in his case, and which scarcely any circumstance or situation can palliate, might clearly have been avoided by Lewis the thirteenth.

This opinion is confirmed by the almost universal hatred with which Concini was regarded, and is remarkably evinced by certain movements I promised to relate, and which took place the day after he was murdered.

The body had been privately interred by his friends in the church of St. Germaine d'Auxerre; but the instant his death was generally known, the populace hurried in crowds to the spot where he was buried, and disinterred the corpse; after execrations, yellings, and various abominable mutilations, they dragged it through the streets, and finally concluded their savage triumph by cutting the object of their impotent vengeance into a thousand pieces.

This

This scene, almost equal to the modern revolutionary horrors of Paris, Lyons, and Versailles, was attended with other circumstances too shocking to relate in English.

"Un autre," says a French says a French writer, speaking of the persons who had violated Concini's tomb, "un autre mit sa main dans le corps, la retira toute sanglante, et la porta dans sa bouche pour succer le sang; un autre eut moyen de lui arracher le cœur, et l'aller cuire sur les charbons, et manger publiquement avec du vinaigre."

Cardinal Richlieu, who afterwards guided the councils of France, and exerted a despotism far greater and more unrelenting, but conducted with dexterity and management, was introduced at court, and patronized by Concini: sharing in the Florentine's disgrace, he retired for a short time, but being soon recalled, lived and died undisturbed in the sunshine of royal favor.

Yet, at a certain period of his administration, when a crowd, I forget on what occasion, were huzzaing as the carriage of his eminence was passing, an enemy of the cardinal's observed-" Ils ont apparemment buble, que c'etoit un des coquins d'un Juif excommune." "They seem to have forgot that he was one of the

varlets of an excommunicated Jew."

CONCLAVE, a part of the

palace of the Vatican, consisting of several large anti-chambers made use of for electing a Pope, and divided by numerous temporary partitions into small rooms, called cells; each cardinal being allowed two; one for his own use, furnished with a bed, a few chairs and a table; and another for his conclavist, or secretary.

The right of chusing a supreme head of the Catholic church has been exercised for almost time immemorial by the college of cardinals: their number was limited to seventy, at the council of Basil, by Pope Sixtus the fifth.

In the middle of the eighteenth century they amounted to sixtyeight; of whom fifty were Italians, six French, four Germans, three Spaniards, three Portuguese, one a Fleming, and one a Polander; it is a standing law of the sacred college, that every pope must be a native of Italy.

To the dignity of cardinal there is no revenue attached, but they are stiled eminentissimi, and generally hold considerable offices, civil as well as ecclesiastical; they consider themselves on an equality with princes, and as such have been treated.