Part 109 (1/2)

It was present in the pulpit of Pierre de Bruys, in the pages of Arnoldo da Brescia, in the cell of Roger Bacon.

It was active in the field with Peter Revel, in the castle of Lord Cobham, in the pulpit with John Huss, in the camp with John Ziska, in the cla.s.s-room of Pico di Mirandola, in the observatory of Abraham Zacuto, and the college of Antonio di Lebrija, and it burst into full light through Martin Luther.

=Re'gan=, second daughter of King Lear, and wife of the duke of Cornwall.

Having received the half of her father's king-[TN-119] she refused to entertain him with his suite. On the death of her husband, she designed to marry Edmund, natural son of the earl of Gloster, and was poisoned by her elder sister, Goneril, out of jealousy. Regan, like Goneril, is proverbial for ”filial ingrat.i.tude.”--Shakespeare, _King Lear_ (1605).

=Regent Diamond= (_The_). So called from the regent duke of Orleans. This diamond, the property of France, at first set in the crown, and then in the sword of state, was purchased in India by a governor of Madras, of whom the regent bought it for 80,000.

=Regillus= (_The Battle of Lake_). Regillus Lacus is about twenty miles east of Rome, between Gabii (north) and Lavic.u.m (south). The Romans had expelled Tarquin the Proud from the throne, because of the most scandalous conduct of his son s.e.xtus, who had violated Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus. Thirty combined cities of Latium, with Sabines and Volscians, took the part of Tarquin, and marched towards Rome. The Romans met the allied army at the Lake Regillus, and here, on July 15, B.C. 499, they won the great battle which confirmed their republican const.i.tution, and in which Tarquin, with his sons s.e.xtus and t.i.tus, was slain. While victory was still doubtful, Castor and Pollux, on their white horses, appeared to the Roman dictator, and fought for the Romans.

The victory was complete, and ever after the Romans observed the anniversary of this battle with a grand procession and sacrifice. The procession started from the temple of Mars outside the city walls, entered by the Porta Capena, traversed the chief streets of Rome, marched past the temple of Vesta in the Forum, and then to the opposite side of the ”great square,” where they had built a temple to Castor and Pollux in grat.i.tude for the aid rendered by them in this battle. Here offerings were made, and sacrifice was offered to the Great Twin-Brothers, the sons of Leda. Macaulay has a lay, called _The Battle of the Lake Regillus_, on the subject.

Where, by the Lake Regillus, Under the Porcian height, All in the land of Tusculum, Was fought the glorious fight.

Macaulay, _Lays of Ancient Rome_ (1842).

A very parallel case occurs in the life of Mahomet. The Koreis.h.i.+tes had armed to put down ”the prophet;” but Mahomet met them in arms, and on January 13, 624, won the famous battle of Bedr. In the _Koran_ (ch.

iii.), he tells us that the angel Gabriel, on his horse, Hazum, appeared on the field with 3000 ”angels,” and won the battle for him.

In the conquest of Mexico, we are told that St. James appeared on his grey horse at the head of the Castilian adventurers, and led them on to victory. Bernal Diaz, who was in the battle, saw the grey horse, but fancies the rider was Francesco de Morla, though, he confesses, ”it might be the glorious apostle St. James” for aught he knew.

=Regimen of the School of Salerno=, a collection of precepts in Latin verse, written by John of Milan, a poet of the eleventh century, for Robert, the duke of Normandy.

A volume universally known As the ”Regimen of the School of Salern.”

Longfellow, _The Golden Legend_ (1851).

=Reginald Archer.= A refined, debonnaire sensualist, courted by women and envied by men. He wooes and marries a gentle, pure heiress, and would, as her husband, break her heart were not the evil work cut short by his death at the hands of a man whose wife Reginald has lured from her allegiance to her lawful lord.--Anne Crane Seemuller, _Reginald Archer_ (1865).

=Region of Death=, (_Marovsthulli_), Thurr, near Delhi, fatal, from some atmospheric influence, especially about sunset.

=Regno= (_The_), Naples.

Are our wiser heads leaning towards an alliance with the pope and the Regno?--George Eliot (Marian Evans).

=Reg'ulus=, a Roman general, who conquered the Carthaginians (B.C. 256), and compelled them to sue for peace. While negotiation was going on, the Carthaginians, joined by Xanthippos, the Lacedemonian, attacked the Romans at Tunis, and beat them, taking Regulus prisoner. The captive was sent to Rome to make terms of peace and demand exchange of prisoners, but he used all his influence with the senate to dissuade them from coming to terms with their foe. On his return to captivity, the Cathaginians[TN-120] cut off his eyelids and exposed him to the burning sun, then placed him in a barrel armed with nails, which was rolled up and down a hill till the man was dead.

? This subject has furnished Pradon and Dorat with tragedies (_French_), and Metastasio, the Italian poet, with an opera called _Regolo_ (1740).

”Regulus” was a favorite part of the French actor, Francois J. Talma.