ortunately for himself, ate nothing for dinner that day
but cabbage dressed with oil, which acting as an antidote, caused him
to vomit profusely, and saved his life. He was exceedingly ill for five
days, but never suspected that he had been poisoned.

In process of time, poison vending became a profitable trade. Eleven
years after this period, it was carried on at Rome to such an extent
that the sluggish government was roused to interference. Beckmann, in
his "History of Inventions," and Lebret, in his "Magazin zum Gebrauche
der Staaten Kirche Geschichte," or Magazine of Materials for a History
of a State Church, relates that, in the year 1659, it was made known to
Pope Alexander VII. that great numbers of young women had avowed in the
confessional that they had poisoned their husbands with slow poisons.
The Catholic clergy, who in general hold the secrets of the
confessional so sacred, were shocked and alarmed at the extraordinary
prevalence of the crime. Although they refrained from revealing the
names of the penitents, they conceived themselves bound to apprise the
head of the church of the enormities that were practised. It was also
the subject of general conversation in Rome that young widows were
unusually abundant. It was remarked, too, that if any couple lived
unhappily together, the husband soon took ill and died. The papal
authorities, when once they began to inquire, soon learned that a
society of young wives had been formed, and met nightly, for some
mysterious purpose, at the house of an old woman named Hieronyma Spara.
This hag was a reputed witch and fortune-teller, and acted as president
of the young viragos, several of whom, it was afterwards ascertained,
belonged to the first families of Rome.

In order to have positive evidence of the practices of this female
conclave, a lady was employed by the Government to seek an interview
with them. She dressed herself out in the most magnificent style; and
having been amply provided with money, she found but little difficulty,
when she had stated her object, of procuring an audience of La Spara
and her sisterhood. She pretended to be in extreme distress of mind on
account of the infidelities and ill-treatment of her husband, and
implored La Spara to furnish her with a few drops of the wonderful
elixir, the efficacy of which in sending cruel husbands to "their last
long sleep" was so much vaunted by the ladies of Rome. La Spara fell
into the snare, and sold h