第11章

Then followed twelve Latin signatures, jotted about here and there, wherever there was a space upon the tile suitable to their inscription.These signatures, with three exceptions only, ended with the name "Vindex" or "the Avenger," which seems to have been adopted by the family after its migration to Rome as a kind of equivalent to the Grecian "Tisisthenes," which also means an avenger.Ultimately, as might be expected, this Latin cognomen of Vindex was transformed first into De Vincey, and then into the plain, modern Vincey.It is very curious to observe how the idea of revenge, inspired by an Egyptian before the time of Christ, is thus, as it were, embalmed in an English family name.

A few of the Roman names inscribed upon the sherd Ihave actually since found mentioned in history and other records.They were, if I remember right, MVSSIVS.VINDEXSEX.VARIVS.MARVLLVS

C.FVFIDIVS.C.F.VINDEX

and LABERIA POMPEIANA.CONIVX.MACRINI.VINDICISthe last being, of course, the name of a Roman lady.

The following list, however, comprises all the Latin names upon.the sherd:

C.CAECILIVS VINDEX

M.AIMILIVS VINDEX

SEX.VARIVS.MARVLLVS

Q.SOSIVS PRISCVS SENECIO VINDEX

L.VALERIVS COMINIVS VINDEX

SEX.OTACILIVS.M.F.

L ATTIVS.VINDEX

MVSSIVS VINDEX

C.FVFIDIVS.C.F.VINDEX

LICINIVS FAVSTVS

LAVERIA POMPEIANA CONIVX MACRINI VINDICISMANILIA LVCILLA CONIVX MARVLLI VINDICIS

After the Roman names there is evidently a gap of very many centuries.Nobody will ever know now what was the history of the relic during those dark ages, or how it came to have been preserved in the family.My poor friend Vincey had, it will be remembered, told me that his Roman ancestors finally settled in Lombardy, and, when Charlemagne invaded it, returned with him across the Alps, and made their home in Brittany, whence they crossed to England in the reign of Edward the Confessor.How he knew this I am not aware, for there is no reference to Lombardy or Charlemagne upon the tile, though, as will presently be seen, there is a reference to Brittany.To continue: the next entries on the sherd, if I may except a long splash either of blood or red coloring matter of some sort, consist of two crosses drawn in red pigment, and probably representing Crusaders' swords, and a rather neat monogram ("D.V.") in scarlet and blue, perhaps executed by that same Dorothea Vincey who wrote, or rather painted, the doggerel couplet.To the left of this, scribed in faint blue, were the initials A.V., and after them a date, 1300.

Then came what was perhaps as curious an entry as anything upon this extraordinary relic of the past.It is executed in black-letter, written over-the crosses or Crusaders' swords, and dated fourteen hundred and forty-five.As the best plan will be to allow it to speak for itself, I here give the black-letter facsimile, together with the original Latin without the contractions, from which it will be seen that the writer was a fair medieval Latinist.Also we discovered what is still more curious, an English version of the black-letter Latin.This, also written in black-letter, we found inscribed on a second parchment that was in the coffer, apparently somewhat older in date than that on which was inscribed the mediaeval Latin translation of the uncial Greek.

Expanded Version of the Black-Letter Inscription.

"ISTA reliquia est valde misticum et myrificum opus, quod majores mei ex Armorica, scilicet Britannia Minore, secum convehebant; et quidam sanctus clericus semper patri meo in manu ferebat quod penitus illud destrueret, affirmans quod esset ab ipso Sathana conflatum prestigiosa et dyabolica arte, quare pater mens confregit illud in duos partes, quas quidem ego Johannes de Vinceto salvas servavi et adaptavi sicut apparet die lune proximo post festum beate Marie Virginis anni gratie MCCCCXLV."Modernized Version of the Black-Letter Translation.