“_Will_ (_Summers_). And for that speech they have declined it upon his breech.”
The custom was perhaps practised in Spain for the improvement of Philip III. Le Sage has introduced such a mode of correction in his _Gil Blas_, with the following amusing anecdote. He tells us how Don Raphael was, when twelve years of age, selected by the Marquis de Leganez to be the companion of his son of the same age, who hardly knew a letter of his alphabet. In spite of the patient endeavour of his masters to induce him to apply himself to his studies, he persisted in frittering away his time, till at last the head-master resolved to give _le fouet_ to young Raphael whenever the little Leganez deserved it. This, however, he did so unsparingly that the boy Raphael made up his mind to run away from the roof of the Marquis de Leganez; and to revenge for all the cruel and unjust treatment which he had received, he took with him 150 ducats of the master.
Once more, in the _Pekin Gazette_ for 1876, we find the appointment of, among other instructors to the young Emperor, a _hahachutcz_, or “whipping-boy,” who by reason of his office suffers in his person for all the sins and shortcomings of his imperial fellow-student.
There were exceptions, however, to this rule, for when Dr. Markham inquired of George III. “how his Majesty would wish to have the princes treated,” he replied, “Like the sons of any private English gentleman. If they deserve it, _let them_ be flogged. Do as you used to do at Westminster.”
Among instances of marriage by proxy may be mentioned that of Joanna of Navarre with Henry IV., April 3, 1402, Antoine Riczi acting as proxy of the bride. The act was performed with great solemnity in the presence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the King’s half-brothers, the Beaufort princes, the Earl of Worcester, Lord Chamberlain of England, and other officers of State, and pronounced in these words:--“I, Antoine Riczi, in the name of my worshipful lady, Joanna, the daughter of Charles, lately King of Navarre, Duchess of Bretagne, and Countess of Richmond, take you, Henry of Lancaster, King of England, and Lord of Ireland, to be my husband, and thereto I, Antoine, in the spirit of my said lady, plight you my troth.”