are shoulders for them to lash.

At Canossa, in the winter of 1077, was performed a most degrading act of
penance by Emperor Henry IV. of Germany. He had been excommunicated by
Pope Gregory VII., and had suffered much on that account. He resolved to
see the Pope, and, if possible, obtain absolution. The Emperor made a
long and toilsome journey in the cold, in company with his loving wife
Bertha, his infant son, and only one knight. The Pope refused to see the
Emperor until he had humbled himself at the gates of the castle. "On a
dreary winter morning," say Baring-Gould and Gilman, in their "History
of Germany," "with the ground deep in snow, the King, the heir of a line
of emperors, was forced to lay aside every mark of royalty, was clad in
the thin white dress of the penitent, and there fasting, he awaited the
pleasure of the Pope in the castle yard. But the gates did not unclose.
A second day he stood, cold, hungry, and mocked by vain hope." On the
close of the third day, we are told that he was received and pardoned by
the Pope.

The romantic story of Eleanor Cobham, first mistress and afterwards wife
of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, is one of considerable interest in
illustrating the strange beliefs of the olden times. The Duchess was
tried in the year 1441, for treason and witchcraft. It transpired that
two of her accomplices had made, by her direction, a waxen image of the
reigning monarch, Henry VI. They had placed it before a slow fire,
believing that the King's life would waste away as the figure did. In
the event of Henry's death, the Duke of Gloucester, as the nearest heir
to the house of Lancaster, would have been crowned king. On the 9th
November, sentence was pronounced upon the Duchess: it was to the effect
that she perform public penance in three open places in London, and end
her days in prison in the Isle of Man. The manner of her doing penance
was as follows: "On Monday, the 13th, she came by water from
Westminster, and landing at Temple Bridge, walked at noon-day through
Fleet Street, bearing a waxen taper of two pounds weight, to St. Paul's,
where she offered it at the high altar. On the Wednesday following, she
landed at the Old Swan, and passed through Bride Street, Gracechurch
Street, and to Leadenhall, and at Cree Church, near Aldgate, made her
second offering. On the ensuing Friday she was put on shore at
Queenhithe, whence she proceeded to St. Michael's Church, Cornhill, and
so completed her