A good Catholic,
he went regularly to the services, always attending the earliest mass
at Saint-Martin; and as he had purchased there, as elsewhere, a chapel
in perpetuity, he was separated even in church from other Christians.
A popular proverb of that day, long remembered in Tours, was the
saying: "You passed in front of the Fleming; ill-luck will happen to
you." Passing in front of the Fleming explained all sudden pains and
evils, involuntary sadness, ill-turns of fortune among the
Touraineans. Even at court most persons attributed to Cornelius that
fatal influence which Italian, Spanish, and Asiatic superstition has
called the "evil eye." Without the terrible power of Louis XI., which
was stretched like a mantle over that house, the populace, on the
slightest opportunity, would have demolished La Malemaison, that "evil
house" in the rue du Murier. And yet Cornelius had been the first to
plant mulberries in Tours, and the Touraineans at that time regarded
him as their good genius. Who shall reckon on popular favor!
A few seigneurs having met Maitre Cornelius on his journeys out of
France were surprised at his friendliness and good-humor.
Pages:
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45