Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 13, MAT-MIC

Michael.
■& See
France,
140.
M I C [ 7S° ] MIC
Wards lire latter end of the 17th century, a newfwriter
' in Holland, who had prefumed to print fome very fc-
vere and farcaftic reflections on Madame de Maintenon,
was confined in this place. Some months after his pub¬
lication, he was induced, by a perfon fent exprelsly for
that purpofe, to make a tour into French Flanders.
The moment he had quitted the Dutch territories, he
was put under arreft ; and immediately, by his rnaje-
fly’s exprefs command, condufted to Mount Michael,
where he was {hut up in this cage. Here he lived up¬
wards of 23 years; and here he at length expired.
During the long nights of winter, no candle or fire was
allowed him. He rvas not permitted to have any book.
He faw no human face, except the gaoler, who came
once every day to prefent him, through a hole in the
wicket, with his little portion of bread and wine. No
inftrument was given him with which he could deftroy
himfelf: but he found means at length to draw out a
nail from the wood, with which he engraved, or cut on
the bars of his cage, certain fieurs de lis and armorial
bearings, which formed his only employment and re¬
creation. They are very curioufly performed confider-
ing the rudenefs of his inilrument.
The fubterraneous chambers in this mountain are
faid to be fo numerous, that the gaolers themfelves do
not know them. There are certain dungeons called
aubliettes, into which they were acufcomed anciently to
let down malefaftors guilty of very heinous crimes : they
provided them with a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine,
and then they were totally forgotten, and left to perilh
by hunger in the dark vaults of the rock. This puniih-
ment, however, has not been infli&ed by any king in
the laid or prefent century.
Here alfo is a remarkable chamber, in one corner
of which is a kind of window : between this and the
wall of the building is a very deep fpace, of near 100
feet perpendicular, at the bottom of which is another
window opening to the fea. It is called the Hole of
Montgomeri; and the hiftory of it is as follows: In
the year 1559, Henry II. king of France was unfor¬
tunately killed at a tournament by the count de Mont¬
gomeri *. He was a Huguenot ^ and having efcaped
fie maffaere of Paris, made head againft the royal
forces in Normandy, fupported by Queen Elizabeth
with arms and money. Being driven from his fortreffes
in thefe parts, lie retired to a rock called the Tombe-
laine. This is another fimilar to Mount Michael; only
three quarters of a league from it, and of nearly equal
dimenfions. At that time there was a caflle upon it,
which has fince been demoliftied, and of which fcarce
any veftiges now remain. From this fortrefs, accef-
fible only at low-water, he continually made excurfions,
and annoyed the enemy, who never dared to attack
him. He coined money, laid all the adjacent country
under contribution, and rendered himfelf univerfally
dreaded. Defirous, however, to furprife Mount Mi¬
chael, he found means to engage one. of the monks re-
fident in the abbey \ who promifed to give him the
fignal for his enterprife by difplaying a handkerchief.
The monk having made the fignal, betrayed him, and
armed all his afibciates, who waited Montgomeri“s ar¬
rival. The chieftan came, attended by 50 chofen
fiddlers, all defperate, and capable of any attempt.
They croffed the fand ; and having placed their feel¬
ing-ladders, mounted one by one. As they came to
2
the top, they were defpatched, each in turn, without
noife. Montgomeri, who followed laft, difeovered the
perfidy, and efcaped with only two of his men, with ,
whom he regained the Tombelaine. They preferve
with great care the ladders and grappling irons ufi d on
this occafion. The count was at laid bofieged and ta¬
ken prifoner, by the marefchal de Matignon, in 1 574,
at Domfront, in Normandy 5 and Catharine de Midi-
cis, who hated him for having been, though innocent¬
ly, the caufe of her hufband’s death, caufed him to be
immediately executed.
The church of Mount Michael is a great curiofity.
It ftands on nine pillars of moft enormous dimenfions,
built on the folid rock. Each of them appears to be
about 25 feet in circumference : befides thefe, there are
two others much inferior in fize, on which the centre
of the church reits, and over which is tire tower. The
following is the legendary account of the origin of this
church : In the reign of Childibert II. there wTas a
bifiiop of Avranches named St Aubert. To this holy
man the archangel Michael was pleafed to appear one
night, and ordered him to go to this rock to build a
church. St Aubert treated this as a dream ; upon
which the angel appeared a fecond time ; and being {till
difobeyed, he returned a third time, when, by way of
imprinting his command upon the faint’s memory, he
made a hole in his Ikull, by touching it with his thumb.
The Ikull is {till preferved in the treafury of the church.
It is enclofed in a little fhrine of gold, and a cryftal,
which opens over the orifice, admits the gratification
of curiofity by the minuteft examination of it. The
hole is of a fize and Ihape proportionable to the thumb
faid to have produced it; but it is impoflxble to deter¬
mine-whether it has been really made by a knife or
any other way. It is not to be fuppofed that the faint
would forget fuch a fenfible mark of the angel’s dif-
pleafure 5 he therefore immediately repaired to the rock,
and conltrufled a fmall church, as he had been com¬
manded. Here, however, true hiftory fupplies the
place of fable } and informs us, that it was in 966
when Richard the fecond duke of Normandy began to
build tbe abbey. It was completed about the year 1070,
under William the Conqueror, though many other ad-
tions were made by fucceeding abbots.
In the treafury of the church are innumerable other
relics: among which fome few have a real and intrin-
fic value. There is a fine head of Charles VI. of France,
cut in a cryftal, and the reprefentation of a cockle-
fhell in gold, weighing many pounds, given by Rich¬
ard II. duke of Normandy, when he founded the ab¬
bey. There is an arm faid to belong to St Richard
king of England ; but who this faint was it muft be
very difficult to determine. Such is the hiftory of the
prifon, abbey, and church of Mount Michael previous
to the revolution •, they have probably undergone fome
changes fince that period.
St MICHAEL’S, a borough town of Cornwall,
between St Columb and Truro, 247 miles from Lon¬
don. Though one of the oldeft boroughs in the coun¬
ty by prefeription, and of great note in the Saxon
times, it is a mean hamlet in the pari dies of Newland
and St Enidore 5 yet it is governed by a portreeve,
chofen yearly by a jury of the chief inhabitants, out
of the fix chief tenants, called deputy lords of the
manor, becaufe they hold lands in the borough. Plere
Mi cl)?, eg
St Mi¬
chael’s.