1315. Raymond Lulle, the most celebrated chemist and alchymist of his
time, was stoned to death by the natives of Mauritania, whither he had
gone on a religious mission, at the age of eighty. His attention was
directed to chemistry by the power of love. A lady, very handsome, with
whom he was passionately enamoured, refused to marry him. One day, when
he renewed his solicitation, she showed her bosom inflamed by a cancer.
Young Lulle instantly took leave, with the resolution to cure, and if
possible, conquer the heart of his mistress. He searched with all the
ardour, which affection and compassion could inspire, into the secrets
of medicine and chemistry, and had the good fortune to cure, and to
marry her. After her death he attached himself to the church. The
inhabitants of the island of Majorca, where he was born, in 1236, revere
him as a martyr.
1461. The battle which decided the claims of the houses of York and
Lancaster was fought between Towton and Saxton, two villages near York.
It commenced in a snow storm at day break, was contested with fearful
obstinacy till three in the afternoon, and terminated in a deluge of
blood. Eight and thirty thousand human beings were left dead on the
field; of whom the heralds appointed to number the slain, returned that
twenty-eight thousand were Lancastrians. Edward, duke of York, who won
the day, rode from the scene of carnage to York, where he ordered the
death of several prisoners; while Henry VI. of Lancaster, who lost the
crown, escaped with great difficulty to the borders.
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