osed to kill with its gaze the person who looked on it.
Thus Henry VI. says to Suffolk, "Come, basilisk, and kill the innocent
gazer with thy sight."

Natus in ardente Lydiae basiliscus arena,
Vulnerat aspectu, luminibusque nocet.

Mantuanus.

BASILIUS, a neighbor of Quiteria, whom he loved from childhood, but
when grown up the father of the lady forbade him the house, and
promised Quiteria in marriage to Camacho, the richest man of the
vicinity. On their way to church they passed Basilius, who had fallen
on his sword, and all thought he was at the point of death. He prayed
Quiteria to marry him, "for his soul's peace," and as it was deemed
a mere ceremony, they were married in due form. Up then started the
wounded man, and showed that the stabbing was only a ruse, and the
blood that of a sheep from the slaughter-house. Camacho gracefully
accepted the defeat, and allowed the preparations for the general
feast to proceed.

Basilius is strong and active, pitches the bar
admirably, wrestles with amazing dexterity, and
is an excellent cricketer. He runs like a buck,
leaps like a wild goat, and plays at skittles like
a wizard. Then he has a fine voice for singing,
he touches the guitar so as to make it speak, and
handles a foil as well as any fencer in Spain.--Cervantes,
_Don Quixote_, II. ii. 4 (1615).

BASRIG or BAGSECG, a Scandinavian king, who with Halden or Halfdene
(2 _syl_.) king of Denmark, in 871, made a descent on Wessex. In this
year Ethelred fought nine pitched battles with the Danes. The first
was the battle of Englefield, in Berkshire, lost by the Danes; the
next was the battle of Beading, won by the Danes; the third was the
famous battle of AEscesdun or Ashdune (now _Ashton_), lost by the
Danes, and in which king Bagsecg was slain.

And Ethelred with them [_the Danes_] nine sundry fields that fought ...
Then Reading ye regained, led by that valiant lord,
Where Basrig ye outbraved, and Halden sword to sword.

Drayton, _Polyolbion_, xii. (1613).

Next year (871) the Danes for the first time entered Wessex.... The
first place they came to was Reading.... Nine great battles, besides
smaller skirmishes, were fought this year, in some of which the
English won, and in others the Danes. First, alderman AEthelwulf fought
the Danes at Englefield, and beat them. Four days after that there was
another battle at Reading ... where the Danes had the better of it,
and AEthelwulf wa