prepared for their consolation, of the same shape, size, and appearance
as the stolen relic, and asserted, most probably with perfect truth,
that in Divine powers, or claim to religious worship, it was but little
inferior to its model. "The people of Paris," says Estoile, an
eye-witness of this transaction, "being very devout, and easy of faith
on such subjects" (he is speaking of the sixteenth century,) "gratefully
hailed the restoration of some tangible and immediate object for their
prayers." Of the original fragment I can discern no further authentic
trace; and here, then, it seems to have ended its long and adventurous
career.

Before I conclude, I ought, perhaps, to make some mention of the
pretended nails of the passion, which were obtained by Constantine the
Great at the same time with the cross. He melted a part of them into a
helmet for himself; and the other part was converted into a bridle for
his horse, in supposed obedience to a prophetic text of Zechariah:
"In that day shall there be upon the bells (bridles) of the horses,
holiness unto the Lord."[20] Yet, though the helmet alone might appear
to have required all the nails which could possibly be employed in a
crucifixion, it is not unusual in southern Europe to meet with fragments
of old iron, for which the same sacred origin is claimed. Thus, for
instance, at Catania, in Sicily, I have seen one of these nails, which
is believed to possess miraculous powers, and exhibited only once a year
with great solemnity. There is another in a private oratory of the
Escurial; and I was surprised in observing in the same case a relic of
Sir Thomas à Becket. All the nails, from the time of Constantine, are
rejected as spurious by Cardinal Baronius;[21] yet a former Pope had
expressed his belief in their authenticity;[22] and the ingenious idea
of miraculous vegetation might have been easily applied to them. But
to trace the other parts of this real or fabulous history, and more