rs before his death, on his return from Palestine,
Christopher, Duke of Bavaria, was said to have lifted to his shoulders
a stone which weighed more than 340 pounds. Louis de Boufflers,
surnamed the "Robust," who lived in 1534, was noted for his strength
and agility. When he placed his feet together, one against the other,
he could find no one able to disturb them. He could easily bend and
break a horseshoe with his hands, and could seize an ox by the tail and
drag it against its will. More than once he was said to have carried a
horse on his shoulders. According to Guyot-Daubes there was, in the
last century, a Major Barsaba who could seize the limb of a horse and
fracture its bone. There was a tale of his lifting an iron anvil, in a
blacksmith's forge, and placing it under his coat.

To the Emperor Maximilian I was ascribed enormous strength; even in his
youth, when but a simple patriot, he vanquished, at the games given by
Severus, 16 of the most vigorous wrestlers, and accomplished this feat
without stopping for breath. It is said that this feat was the origin
of his fortune. Among other celebrated persons in history endowed with
uncommon strength were Edmund "Ironsides," King of England; the Caliph
Mostasem-Billah; Baudouin, "Bras-de-Fer," Count of Flanders; William
IV, called by the French "Fier-a-Bras," Duke of Aquitaine; Christopher,
son of Albert the Pious, Duke of Bavaria; Godefroy of Bouillon; the
Emperor Charles IV; Scanderbeg; Leonardo da Vinci; Marshal Saxe; and
the recently deceased Czar of Russia, Alexander III.

Turning now to the authentic modern Hercules, we have a man by the name
of Eckeberg, born in Anhalt, and who traveled under the name of
"Samson." He was exhibited in London, and performed remarkable feats of
strength. He was observed by the celebrated Desaguliers (a pupil of
Newton) in the commencement of the last century, who at that time was
interested in the physiologic experiments of strength and agility.
Desaguliers believed that the feats of this new Samson were more due to
agility than strength. One day, accompanied by two of his confreres,
although a man of ordinary strength, he duplicated some of Samson's
feats, and followed his performance by a communication to the Royal
Society. One of his tricks was to resist the strength of five or six
men or of two horses. Desaguliers claimed that this was entirely due to
the position taken. This person would lift a man by one foot, and bear
a hea