. sc. 1, 1598).

=Pompil'ia=, a foundling, the putative daughter of Pietro (2 _syl._). She
married Count Guido Franceschini, who treated her so brutally that she
made her escape under the protection of a young priest named
Caponsacchi. Pompilia subsequently gave birth to a son, but was slain by
her husband.

The babe had been a find i' the filth-heap, sir,
Catch from the kennel. There was found at Rome,
Down in the deepest of our social dregs,
A woman who professed the wanton's trade ...
She sold this babe eight months before its birth
To our Violante (3 _syl._), Pietro's honest spouse, ...
Partly to please old Pietro,
Partly to cheat the rightful heirs, agape
For that same principal of the usufruct,
It vexed him he must die and leave behind.

R. Browning, _The Ring and the Book_, ii, 557, etc.

=Ponce de L['e]on=, the navigator who went in search of the _Fontaine de
Jouvence_, "qui fit rajovenir la gent." He sailed in two ships on this
"voyage of discoveries," in the sixteenth century.

Like Ponce de L['e]on, he wants to go off to the Antipod[^e]s in
search of that _Fontaine de Jouvence_ which was fabled to give a man
back his youth.--_V['e]ra_, 130.

=Pongo=, a cross between "a land-tiger and a sea-shark." This terrible
monster devastated Sicily, but was slain by the three sons of St.
George.--R. Johnson, _The Seven Champions, etc._ (1617).

=Ponoc'rates= (4 _syl._), the tutor of Gargantua.--Rabelais, _Gargantua_
(1533).

=Pontius Pilate's Body-Guard=, the 1st Foot Regiment. In Picardy the
French officers wanted to make out that they were the seniors, and, to
carry their point, vaunted that they were on duty on the night of the
Crucifixion. The colonel of the 1st Foot replied, "If we had been on
guard we should not have slept at our posts" (see _Matt._ xxviii. 13).

=Pontoys= (_Stephen_), a veteran in Sir Hugo de Lacy's troop.--Sir W.
Scott, _The Betrothed_ (time, Henry II.).

=Pony= (_Mr. Garland's_), Whisker (_q.v._).

=Poole= (1 _syl._), in Dorsetshire; once "a young and lusty sea-born
lass," courted by Great Albion, who had by her three children, Brunksey,
Fursey and [St.] Hellen. Thetis was indignant that one of her virgin
train should be guilty of such indiscretion; and, to protect his
children from her fury, Albion placed them in the bosom of Poole, and
then threw his arms around them.--M. Drayton, _Polyolbion_, ii. (1612)