The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1880-12-22

Horattii and Curiatii were the champions OF
the Arcadian villages, and the earlier Greek
legend had all the features of the later Latin
one. down to the love of the Vlctor,s sister
for one Of the yanquished, and her death.
Romulus was exposed in infancy, was nursed
BY a wolf. became a shepherd chief, and
founded q city the same story was told OF
Cyrus, with the exception that his nurse was
d bitch, and not a she-wolf. Before the ear
Hest historians of Rome was written, the story
Of Curtius had been told Of a patriotic Phry-
gian. Nor are the alleged words OF alleged
heroes much more original than their alleged
acts. Henri Tvs phrase about assassination
-"Whoeyer despises his own life can always
| dispose Of mine"-had been said centuries
| before by Seneca, and his passage OF wits
| with Baudesson, who resemb!ed him IN SO
| striking a manner, had been recorded by q
poet of the middle ages, who got i out Of
| Macrobius, who derived it from-Who shall
say what still earlier source?
The medieval legends were quite as mac
cuTaLC as tuC CldSSlCdl uiStOIlCos
Table Round was not more Of 8 fiction than
C~harlemagne's dozen of Paladins. One line
il Eginhard contains all that we truly know
of Roland, viz, that he was slain in a noun
tain pass. Charlemagne, readers Of Long
fellow will regret to know, had no daughter
Emma, and a full century before the story OF
her carrying off her lover on her shoulders,
lest his footprints should be marked ID the
been printed of another loving couple. Al
fred the Great may have let the cottager,s
cakes burn, though his friend and biographer
Asser, is silent on the subject, but he did not
venture into the Danish camp, disguised as a
minstrel. No old Saxon writer tells the tale
of Alfred it is told of another Saxon king.
They assert that the incident described IN
Moore's s'Rich and rare were the gems she
wore" took place in Alfred's reign; Moore
gives it as happening under Brian Boroihme;
other chroniclers have told the same story in
honor Of Rollo Of Normandy and Of Frothi
of Denmark. IF Canute really set his chair
on the sea beach and ordered the surges to
retire, it is curious that no one thought of re-
cording the fact till a hundred years had
elapsed. There is no good ground for be-
lieying that Edward I. massacred the Welsh
bards, and if Lingard speaks the truth, Fair
Rosamond was not killed by Queen Elanor,
but died in a convent in the odor of sanctity.
Blondel had no need to 90 the round Of all
the strong places Of Europe, Warbling his
song and listening for a reply from Richard
Occur de Lion, seeing that the place Of the
kings captivity was known. Pharamond,
king Of the Franks, was a myth. Clovis and
Clotilda never married, nor did the latter re-
ceive from Childebert and Clothair the swad
and shears, indicating that her grandson must
choose between the tomb and the tonsure.
Rollo, the great Norman, did not marry
Gisella, daughter Of Charles the Simple, in
Oil, partly because he was then well stricken
in years, partly because Gisella had not yet
been born. Nor did Charlemagne burst into
tears on seeing Norman pirates approach the
southern coast of France, and lament what
such temerity meant for bis weaker success
sors, though Michelet adopts the story as true.
In the first place, Eginhard, though his
chronicler records matter Of infinitely less i'm
lance, is silent on the subject; in the second
Charlemagne died forty-fye years before the
first Norman vessels entered the Mediter-
ranean.
Nor have the historians Of more modern
times been at all more accurate or fortunate.
The woes Of the starry Calico were much
exaggerated. The decree of absolute pro-
hibition was, indeed authentic; but it was
never communicated to Calico, SO bis ssBut,
nevertheless, it does move must be RELOCATED
to the limbo Of mythical n2ots. He was neither
racked nor confined in q prison cell, but had
and was well-nourished. Lucrezia Borgia
has been damned to everlasting fame mainly
through Hugo's drama and Donizetti's opera.
but it is certain that she cannot haze been
which she lived, and at the same time nave
compelled the eulogies Of her contemporaries
Ariosto, Aldus Manutius, Bembo, and men
Of their stamp. She saw many crimes com
mitted, witnessing them with calmness of
passive sorrow and without resolute protest,
but it cannot be said that she anywhere took
the initiative in them, or even an active part.
Again, take the case Of Beatrice Cenci. She
was not Is when she was executed, but 90
Guerra, her lover, was 40, and he was not
her only lover, and she had been a willing