ing in his
hands certain entailed property. The count now treated Pompilia so
brutally that she ran away from home, under the protection of
Caponsacchi, a young priest, and being arrested at Rome, a legal
separation took place. Pompilia sued for a divorce, but, pending the
suit, gave birth to a son. The count now murdered Pietro, Violant[^e], and
Pompilia, but being taken red-handed, was brought to trial, found
guilty, and executed.

=Ring the Bells Backwards= (_To_), to ring a muffled peal, to lament.
Thus, John Cleveland, wishing to show his abhorrence of the Scotch,
says:

How! Providence! and yet a Scottish crew!...
Ring the bells backwards. I am all on fire;
Not all the buckets in a country quire
Shall quench my rage.

_The Rebel Scot_ (1613-1659).

=Ringdove= (_The Swarthy_). The responses of the oracle of Dod[=o]na, in
Ep[=i]ros, were made by old women called "pigeons," who derived their
answers from the cooing of certain doves, the bubbling of a spring, a
rustling of the sacred oak [or _beech_], and the tinkling of a gong or
bell hung in the tree. The women were called pigeons by a play on the
word _pel[=i]ae_, which means "old women" as well as "pigeons;" and as
they came from Libya they were _swarthy_.

According to the fable, Zeus gave his daughter, Th[=e]b[^e], two black
doves endowed with the gift of human speech; one of them flew into
Libya, and the other into Dodona. The former gave the responses in the
temple of Ammon, and the latter in the oracle of Dodona.

... beach or lime,
Or that Thessalian growth,
In which the swarthy ringdove sat,
And mystic sentence spoke.

Tennyson.

=Ringhorse= (_Sir Robert_), a magistrate at Old St. Ronan's.--Sir W.
Scott, _St. Ronan's Well_ (time, George III.).

=Ringwood=, a young Templar.--Sir W. Scott, _Fortunes of Nigel_ (time,
James I.).

=Rintherout= (_Jenny_), a servant at Monkbarns to Mr. Jonathan Oldbuck,
the antiquary.--Sir W. Scott, _The Antiquary_ (time, George III.).

=Riou= (_Captain_), called by Nelson "The Gallant and the Good;" fell in
the battle of the Baltic.

Brave hearts! to Britain's pride
Once so faithful and so true,
On the deck of fame that died,
With the gallant, good Riou.

Campbell, _Battle of the Baltic_ (1777-1844).

=Rip van Winkle= slept twenty years in the Catskill Mountains, of North
America. (See WINKLE.)

Epimen[)i]d[^e]s, the Gnostic