who had been with her.  In spite of this,
the judges were divided in their opinion,
but at last pronounced in favour of the
accused, and ordered them to be set at liberty.
This, however, was not to be done so
easily. M. de la Pivardière was set at liberty
because he had rendered himself a voluntary
prisoner; but, for the others, the meshes of
the law were deliberately unravelled,
according to the strictest forms.  They were
only placed in the position they were in
before they were arrested.  It was now
necessary to prove that the deposition of the
servants on whose testimony the accused had
been arrested, was false.  A trial was ordered.
Before it came on, one of the women—
Catherine Lemoins—died, and as it is gravely
recorded, "Death quashed the prosecution
against her."  The trial, however, as regarded
Catherine Lemercier went on, and was at
last concluded.  She was condemned to stand
barefoot, a cord round her neck, a lighted
torch of two pounds weight in her hand,
before the principal gate of Chatillon sur
l'Indre, and there kneeling down to declare,
in a loud voice, that she had wickedly and
maliciously and with evil intent, made the
false statement set forth on the trial; for
which she asked pardon of God, the king, and
justice.  After this, she was to be severely
beaten with rods at all the chief thoroughfares;
to be branded on the right shoulder;
all she had in the world to be confiscated,
and a fine from her goods to be paid to the
king; she was to be banished for life to a
certain distance, under pain of death if she
returned.  As to Madame Pivardière, and
the prior, and other servants, they were
declared quite innocent of murder, and even
Madame's character as a wife was declared
intact; and that there had never been any
cause for scandal about the prior.  All the
accusations which had been registered against
them were ordered to be blotted out, and
all the parties were dismissed from the
court.  This decree was pronounced on the
fourteenth of June, seventeen hundred and
one; when the case had lasted four years all
but about six weeks.

Notwithstanding the official clearing of her
character, M. de la Pivardière held to his
own opinion respecting his wife's conduct
with the prior; he refused to return to
Nerbonne; and as his relationship to his second
wife was quite upset, he obtained a small
appointment from the Duc de Feuillade,
who was his relation; he soon afterwards
was killed at the head of his brigade
in an encounter with some smugglers.  His
wife did not long survive.  One morning the
poor woman was found dead in her bed.

The second wife married again after her
husband's death.  All the four children of
her first marriage died young.  Her second
husband died also, and she married again for
the third time, and lived and died much
respected.

The Prior of Miseray, who was the cause
of all the woe, broke off all acquaintance
with Madame de la Pivardière, and lived to
a great age, dying at last peacefully in his
convent.

JOHN HOUGHTON'S ADVERTISEMENTS.

JOHN HOUGHTON, as was explained in the
former article,* published the folio edition of
his curious newspaper or magazine of
universal knowledge, between the years sixteen
hundred and ninety-two and seventeen
hundred and three—comprising the greater part
of the reign of William the Third.  In the
first year of that period his weekly sheet was
filled with the miscellaneous communications
already noticed, garnished with such scraps
of home news as the following:—"This
session, at the Old Bailey, twenty received
sentence of death; twelve to be burned in
the hand; four were ordered into their
Majesties' service; five were order'd to be
whipt."  "On Tuesday last, at the whipping-
post in Tuttle Fields, near Westminster, a
pedlar was severely whipt for hawking about
linen cloth."  Or such pickings from the
London Gazette as the following:—"That
the late Governor of Hydelburg was degraded
of all honours, and sent over the Neckar with
the hangman, having first received all
contempt imaginable;—that an usual threepenny
loaf is sold in the French camp for twelve
pence, and quart of beer at the same price;—
that on the twenty-five instant, was launched
at Deptford the Falmouth of fifty guns, built
by Edward Snellgrave at his new dock there;
which is all I see useful for posterity."

*Household Words, No. 348, page 453.

But with the commencement of his second
volume, Houghton enlarged his work in order
to admit advertisements.  The former sheet
of one leaf, or two pages, had been sold for a
penny.  "Any one may have these papers
brought to their houses for a penny the week,
in London; and at the same price within the
compass of the penny post, if the messengers
be spoke to; or else anywhere in England, if
a dozen will agree and speak to their
book-seller or carrier."  It is not clear whether
this penny was or was not superadded to the
charge for the paper itself; but be this as it
may, no additional charge was made for the
advertisement leaf subsequently appended.
Houghton probably received a fee sufficient
to cover the expenses.  In his announcement
of the change, he said: "This advertisement
part is to give away, and those who like it
not may omit the reading.  I believe it will
help on trade, particularly encourage the
advertisers to increase the vent of my papers.
I shall receive all sorts of advertisements, but
shall answer for the reasonableness of none,
unless I give thereof a particular character,
on which (as I shall give it) may be
dependance."