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VALASCA:
A New Woman of the Olden Time,
BY
SALADIN,
Author <?/ “ Janet SmithJ etc.
LONDON:
W. STEWART &]CO.,’4i, FARRINGDON ST., E.C.
��g 10 3 i
N5J?
VALASCA:
A NEW WOMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME
It is only comparatively recently that I became per
sonally acquainted with the New Woman. Previously,
what I suppose, what without imputations of senility or
disrespect may be termed the Old Woman, had been the
object of my raptures and the subject of my songs; for,
an erotic bard was I “when my old hat was new,” and
the head it covered was newer and greener than it is to-day.
I am, although I have girded at Janet for years, her de
voted paladin and romantic minstrel. An uncourtly can
dour has, perhaps too frequently, prompted me to drag
heavy iron harrows across the weedy field of her faults and
foibles. But, somehow, let the harrows tear ever so deeply,
rending, rugging and riving till it would seem that hardly
any of her virtues, and only a few rags of her vices are
left her, she knows that I am her own true knight with
the last drop of my black ink or red blood at her service.
I love the Old Woman, and I love the New. I love the
whole sex and never could, and never can, help it. Cer
tain of the sex have shrugged and screamed at what one
of them once denounced as my “red-hot poker style of
fighting ” ; but, hard though my iconoclastic fight has
been, it would have been impossibly hard if delicately
nurtured and highly educated women had not ex
tended to me their moral and material support. My
blessing on the Old Woman, my benison on the New.
“ Their tricks an’ craft hae put me daft,
They’ve ta’en me in an’ a’ that ;
But, clear your decks, an’ ‘ Here’s the Sex’ !
I like the jads for a’ that.
“ For a’ that an’ a’ that,
An’ twice as muckle’s a’ that,
My dearest bluid, to do them guid,
They’re welcome till’t for a’ that ! ”
�4
VALASCA:
A few years ago, I had the pleasure of an introduction to
one who was then at any rate a conspicuous New Woman.
For, had she not publicly announced that, to wrest the
rights and privileges of her sex from the masculine-gen
dered tyrants, the women of England should have
recourse to the bayonet! The utterance, at the time,
came in for an ungallant share of newspaper persiflage and
derision. Of fairly bellicose temperament myself, I
yearned to behold this Semiramis of Cockayne. In the
early and salad days of Saladin, the sex had frequently
been the cause of his heart being deeply pierced with the
arrows of Cupid; and, now, he was possessed of a half
daring, half terrified, desire to behold a Janet who, for the
rights he had withheld from her, was prepared to transfix
his diaphragm with a bayonet.
Through a lady friend, I obtained an introduction to
mine enemy. I had half expected to be introduced to
some wizened, weird and stalwart Hecate with a raucous
voice that dirled the rafters, and with a handshake that
would burst my finger-tips and stain with my detested
masculine blood the blanch of her voluminous and
majestic skirts. I was introduced, instead, to a young and
fair-haired English gentlewoman, in appearance more sug
gestive of being a ministering angel when pain and
anguish should rend the brow of us poor males than a
bellicose hell-cat and flaming fury who was to stretch us
stark on the battle-field with the cold earth drinking our
unavenged gore and our death-glazing eye glaring up to
the unpitying heaven. She indeed, O Virgil, suggested
“ arms and the man ”; but the arms in which Hector
enclasped Andromache, not the arms with which Patroclus
vanquished Hector. I told the sweet, gentle and refined
amazon something to this effect. Who knows, my words
at random thrown may have borne seed in the heart of
this young lady who scorned the needle and aspired
to the bayonet. Who knows but I have saved my sex
from overthrow, or even extermination ? Be that as it
may, since the date of my brief interview with her, the
world has heard little or nothing of, and has ceased to
tremble at, the name of the belle of the bayonet.
It is a far cry from Cockayne to Prague, and from the
�A NEW WOMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.
5
end of the 19th to the end of the 7th century ; but, over
the gulf of historic reminiscence, I make that cry, and link
this belle of the bayonet with Valasca, a valorous if illstarred predecessor. The story of Valasca is told by no
meaner chronicler than yEneas Sylvius, afterwards Pope
Pius the Second, in his history of Bohemia. Valasca
was one of the maids of honour in the court of Queen
Libussa. Libussa, who had succeeded her father, Crocus,
on the throne of Bohemia, ruled for some years with
ability and acceptance; but her strict administration of
justice eventually gave deep umbrage to one of the most
powerful of her nobles who deemed that his importance and
influence should have been sufficient to have indemnified
him against punishment for his malefactions. Burning with
hatred and thirsting for revenge, he raised the standard
of revolt against his queen, urged that a queen was an
absurdity and worse in a nation of hardy and warlike
men, and protested that, during her reign, Libussa had
persistently favoured her own sex and as persistently
suppressed and insulted the entire male population of
Bohemia.
Libussa, quite recognizing the danger which menaced
her throne, put her woman’s wits asteep to discover
how best to cope with the perilous emergency. She
summoned a great assembly of her people, and ad
dressed them in conciliatory fashion and with marked
discretion and diplomacy. In her peroration, she assured
the Bohemians that, if they really desired a king, rather
than a queen, she had no desire to reign over an unwilling
people. “ If you really desire to have a king,” said she,
“ take my milk-white palfrey, caparison him in his most
costly trappings, and lead him out to the plain. There,
throw his bridle-reins over his neck, and let him go
wherever he will—to the north, south, east or west; but,
ye of the nobility, follow him, and note his conduct with
the most scrupulous attention. Follow him till you see
him halt before a man feeding upon a table of iron.
Bring that man, whoever he may be, back with you to my
palace, and he shall be your king and my husband.”
This proposal pleased the Bohemians mightily. They
richly caparisoned the palfrey, as Libussa had directed,
�6
VALASCA:
let him wander at his own sweet will, but observantly
followed him. After the horse had proceeded ten
miles he reached the bank of the river Biell, where,
in a field, a hind named Primislaus was ploughing.
Before this Primislaus he whisked his tail and reared and
capered and winnied, apparently in a transport of equine
delight. The embassy that had followed the horse now
accosted the peasant and instructed him to mount into
the saddle and accompany them back to the Bohemian
Court to be their king and the husband of their queen,
Libussa. “ Delighted,” replied Primislaus, “ and a remark
ably fine king for you, as well as a gallant husband for your
queen; but the distance to the court is considerable, and
I have not yet broken my fast.” And he laid bread and
cheese on his iron ploughshare fora table, and ate heartily.
The Bohemians remembered what Libussa had said anent
a man eating off an iron table, and felt that a mysterious
Providence had directed them to the man who was
destined to sway their sceptre and wed their queen.
Primislaus was brought ^into the presence of Libussa.
There was a merry marriage bell, and all went happily fcr
some years ; then, there was a doleful funeral bell, for
Libussa had died ; and Primislaus alone was left to rule
over Bohemia. Then the difficulties of King Primislaus
began. His wife dead, the women of Bohemia protested
that he no longer ruled justly, equitably and considerately
over those of their sex. Their mouth-piece, their real
evangelist, was the young, gifted and beautiful Valasca who
had been the private secretary and the closest and dearest
friend of Queen Libussa. No common or garden Janet
this Valasca, but as beautiful as an angel and as clever as
the devil. Bohemia would again find itself under the
rule of petticoats, or she would know why—and she was
not particular to a shade or scrupulous to a line when she
had the dazzling design before her of establishing a
gynocrasy on the hills and through the forests of
Bohemia.
In the depth of the primeval forest, and, at the gloomy
noon of night, the leading malcontent women of Bohemia
assembled in solemn secret at the behest of Valasca.
To forestall possible detection and male interference, the
�A NEW WOMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.
7
fair malcontents came armed to the teeth. There rose
through the gloom the suppressed hum of feminine
voices, for, even in dread and dire conspiracy, Janet
cannot quite constrain her tongue to silence. Gloom, sup
pressed whispers and rustling amongst the undergrowth
of the forest. Then, of a sudden, a flambeau was
lighted. Its alternately red and yellow light flashed and
flared over as romantically grotesque a spectacle as ever
forest depth or cavern recess has witnessed in the working
out of the weird, mad drama of man’s life on earth.
The women of Bohemia were there in their thousands ;
for, apparently, few had desired to take no notice of
Valasca’s summons ; and, possibly, certain who desired to,
dared not disregard it, for Valasca, like the queen under
whom she had served, was known to be a sorceress of the
most esoteric and awful character, prophetically conver
sant with the designs of heaven and the decrees of hell.
A colossal female, with her vizor raised, disclosing
insanely wild eyes and a coarse, voluptuous, but fierce
and cruel mouth that no man born of woman would
desire to kiss, held aloft the gigantic flambeau, mounted
on a tall shaft of pine. In front of this dread amazon
was a great boulder, grey with lichen and green with
moss. With supreme grace and dexterity, a singularly
lithe and symmetrical figure ascended to the summit of
the boulder, right under the glare of the flambeau. The
suppressed female whispering became excited and
threatened, at all peril, to burst into a cheer, for the
figure of almost more than earthly beauty that had
mounted the boulder was that of Valasca.
The splendid young rebel undid her helmet and laid it
on the green moss at her feet. The rippling wealth of her
golden hair streamed down her steel-clad back, while certain
light, vagrant curls fell carelessly over her polished gorget
and flashing breast-plate. Her sword-hilt literally blazed
with gems, amid which was a fateful opal she had had as
a dying gift from Queen Libussa, which was reputed to
carry with it, at the will of the possessor, the most baleful
magic spell, and which was reported to have been gifted
to a remote ancestress of Libussa by the Arch Enemy of
Mankind.
�8
VALASCA :
Valasca was beautiful ; but, her beauty was of the
dignified, statuesque, and severe order, unredeemed by
aught of sweetness and amiability; her eye had the lustre
of cold steel, and her mouth, though exquisitely chiselled,
had in its delicate curves a latent reserve of scorn and
bitterness. She raised her steel-gauntletted hand deprecatingly to silence the comparative clamour her mounting
the boulder had excited. Then, with clear, resonant, but,
at the same time, prudently restrained voice, she
addressed the treason-stained ladies who, with their
swords, were prepared to hack to pieces the throne of
King Primislaus.
“Women of Bohemia, sisters, women born under
the rule of that foremost champion of her sex, Queen
Libussa, our assembling here under present circum
stances, is not unattended with peril; consequently,
I will not detain you long. I should not have brought
you here, but no building in all Bohemia was large
enough to accommodate those I secretly summoned; and,
it was necessary I should, face to face, address you all, so
that no shadow of doubt may be left as to our plans, and
the concerted methods for carrying them out. I fear not,
not even on the part of the basest of you, treachery and
betrayal; for, as you know, I learnt from our late lamented
Queen many secrets of divination and magic ; and, hell
is blessedness to the eternal torture that I can, and shall,
make sure, waits upon her who betrays, or upon her who
falters in carrying out the instructions with which she
shall be charged. That ploughman, Primislaus, shall rule
over us no longer, neither shall any of his accursed sex.
Man is the born enemy of woman, even as the hound is
the born enemy of the hare. By your swords, ladies, you
can rule, and you -will. But the males outnumber us.
“ We must reduce their number before we venture to
meet them on the field of battle, foot to foot, and blade
to blade. I have a powder which Libussa taught me to
produce, and enjoined upon me that, in the proper
emergency, I should use. No man who, at sunset, ever
partook of even the most minute particle of it, was alive at
sunrise. A small quantity of that powder is, while I
speak, being, by girls to whom I have assigned the task,
�A NEW WOMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.
9
handed to each woman present. Ye women who are
wives, your task is easy; and, eternally damned be she
who does not wake to-morrow morning in the arms of a
dead husband, in the cold, stiff arms of a dead enemy of
your sex. And, ye sisters, who have brothers, and ye
maidens who have lovers, ye mothers who have sons, see
that to-morrow, before the sun has disentangled himself
from the ruddy eastern horizon, ye have brothers, lovers,
and sons no more. Swear it! Swear it! ”
And a dull and deadly murmur of “ We swear it!” “ We
swear it! ” in a low but massive chorus rose from under
oak and beech and pine. In a moment the great flambeau
was extinguished ; and, from the lurid contrast, darkness
unutterable fell upon that conclave of women who
groped their way homeward to sleep in the arms of
dead men.
Janet will not readily consent to murder John, even
to secure the emancipation and ascendancy of her sex.
Valasca quite recognized this fact, but she met and
counteracted it by administering charms and kataphilters
to the women to nullify all aversion they might have to
do to death their fathers, brothers, sons, lovers, and hus
bands. The women, so the record of 2Eneas Sylvius
states, carried out their deadly and diabolical commission,
and flew to arms to meet and vanquish such of the males
as poison had not already laid low.
But, while this gynetic conspiracy was being hatched,
King Primislaus had an ominous dream in which a virgin
stepped forward and offered him a goblet of blood. His
late queen had initiated him into many of the profound
mysteries that everywhere touch faintly and dimly upon
the warp and woof of man’s life and destiny. He recog
nized the dream to be symbolical and prophetic, and
resolved that, to prevent his drinking a cup of blood
handed to him by Janet, it would be absolutely necessary
for him by force of arms and drastic and ungallant means,
to bring the rebel ladies to their knees. This he well knew
to be no easy task, for the women of Bohemia were, at
this period, a race of amazons, from the cradle upward
trained to arms and feats of hardihood. Unlike the
male military, they were not enervated by vice and dissi
�IO
VALASCA :
pation. They were exceptionally graceful, lithe, and
active, full of dash and spirit, accomplished equestriennes,
fearless huntresses, dexterous with the sword, deadly with
the javelin, and implacably hostile to the male section of
the human race.
Warned by the dream of the cup of blood, Primislaus
prepared for immediate action; and, when Valasca
marched her amazons to under the walls of Prague, to
her astonishment and chagrin, she found that her design
had been anticipated and that Primislaus, at the head of
an army of male warriors, was already there to receive
her. With the fire and fury of a torrent of burning lava,
Valasca and her Janets of the sword dashed down upon
the vanguard of the army of Johns. Horse and man
staggered back from the wild impetuosity of the charge.
And, thought Primislaus, this is the first sip from the
virgin’s cup of blood, and I like it not. He retreated to
the fortress of Vissagrada with the victorious blood and
dust-covered Janets hacking and hashing at the rear.
Victorious in the field, Valasca yet found the walls of
Vissagrada impregnable to such siege-machinery as she
could bring to bear against them. She raised the siege ;
and, withdrawing to an almost inaccessible mountain rock,
she built thereon a castle which was called Dievize,
dievize being, in that day, the Bohemian word for a virgin.
The mountain upon which this castle stood is still known
as “The Mountain of Virgins.”
John ruefully recognized that, unless he bestirred him
self now, petticoats would be over him forever and ever.
The army clamoured for Primislaus to lead them on to
Dievize. But Primislaus had had another dream of the
goblet of blood order, and he implored the troops to
restrain their impatience as he had had a distinct pre
monition that if they marched against the Janets at the
present juncture, they would, inevitably, march to red
ruin. Cowardly ploughman, thought the valorous knights
of Bohemia, to Pluto with your dreams and divinations ;
without you, in spite of you, we will march upon Dievize.
And, march they did. With toil and peril, they
clambered up the rocks, to attack the amazons in their
fortress of Dievize. Valasca was ready for them and
�A NEW WOMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.
II
accorded them a welcome to her castle, which, writhing in
gore, many forgot instantly, and which those who survived
remembered to the end of their lives. Before springaids
and catapults and rams, and the siege ordnance of the
age could be fairly brought into operation upon the Castle
of the Virgins, the virgins after, with deadly effect,
hurling molten lead, boiling pitch, and great masses
of rock upon the besiegers, with Valasca at their
head, made a sudden sortie of a fiery and desperate
character.
Valasca, conspicuous in the impetuous van, was
superbly mounted, her wealth of yellow hair streaming
down her back as far as her jewelled sword-belt, her eyes
blazing with the fire of battle, her sword circling round
her head like the flash of the winter lightning, she
led the charge, her amazons pressing close behind. They
dashed in upon the male warriors before, owing to the
suddenness of the attack and the irregular character of
the ground, they had had time to form to resist the onset.
There was the fierce skirl of the feminine cheer, mingled
with the hoarser roar of masculine curses and execrations,
a wild swaying of swords, plunging of steeds and clashing
of spears. But only for an instant. The besiegers were
driven headlong down the rocks they had so laboriously
scaled ; and, rich carnival was provided for the eagles of
the Bohmer Wald and the vultures of the Moravian Hills.
History has handed us down the names of several of
the valiant who, in the battle storm, pressing close behind
the war-charger of Valasca, won bloody laurels for their
maiden brows. JEneas Sylvius gives the names, which
are now but little heard of, owing to the enormous
muster-roll of the brave which intervenes between their
day and ours. But, may it gratify their manes, I repro
duce their names here, after the lapse of twelve hundred
years, that the New Women of to-day may call their
children after them. The names of the specially valiant
on the day the Castle of the Virgins was stormed, were :
Malada, Nodea, Sveta, Vorasta, Rad^ea, Zastana, and
Tristana. Ye fair and brave who preferred swords to
distaffs and slaying men to wedding them, come forward
and let me pin over the nipples of your high, white
�I2
VALASCA:
bosoms such Victoria Cross, “ for valour,” as it is in the
power of the A. J. to confer.
By their repulse on the rocks of Dievize, the male
warriors of Bohemia became discouraged and demoral
ized ; and Valasca and her martial maidens carried fire
and sword, almost to the gates of Vissagrada itself, the
stronghold of King Primislaus. Years rolled by, and the
ladies of the court and army of the victorious Valasca
sank, one by one, into the grave, till the military strength
of the virgins became perceptibly diminished. And
none took the place of those whom death laid low. For
no children were being born; and the ghastly truth
dawned upon Valasca that, with every death, there being
no corresponding birth, her kingdom was departing from
her. This must be averted. But, How ? Valasca’s in
genuity was well nigh limitless, and her faculty as a
sorceress penetrated the most awful arcana of being
But, how her ladies were to produce children outside the
co-operation of the hated male sex transcended alike the
limit of her inventiveness and the compass of her magic.
No Mars as in the case of Rhea Sylvia,no ghost as in the
case of Mary, was available. Spells and incantations, of an
imaginable rather than a transcribable order, were
resorted to by which the ladies lost their health and bade
adieu to their beauty, but still remained as barren as the
rock upon which their castle was built.
And the male warriors of Primislaus had their revenge.
As death thinned out, birth recruited their martial ranks.
For, denied their own Bohemian Janets, Janets from
Bavaria, and from over the Carpathians, kindly obliged.
And, more rapidly than the sexton clapped down the sod
upon a grave, the midwife spread the blanket tenderly
over a birth. And, maidens of Bavaria and Hungary who
had hung matrimonial fire in their own country rejoiced
exceedingly at the opportunity for their special talents
and energies which had been opened up in Bavaria.
And they set themselves with a will to producing subjects
for King Primislaus.
Under the untoward circumstances, the queen and her
retinue grimly resigned themselves to the inevitable. The
hated male must be re-admitted to the chamber, but
�A NEW WOMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.
13
never, never to the affections, of the ladies of the court
and army of Valasca. Was ever such a sacrifice of per
sonal feeling made for the public weal since the world
began ? A council was held to settle upon the terms with
which the enemy should be approached. And it was
hereby resolved
That, such of us as are equal to the performance, bear children to
the subjects of King Primislaus.
That the male children which we may bear shall be delivered up
to the government at Vissagrada.
That the female children which we may bear shall be retained by
the government at Dievize, to wit, the Mountain of the Virgins.
That every male child, before being surrendered to the govern
ment at Vissagrada, shall have his right eye extracted, and the thumb
of both the right and left hand amputated ; so that it will not be
possible for any male born in the dominions of Queen Valasca ever
to wield sword or bow against his own mother and the ladies of the
Mountain of the Virgins. As witness our seal and sign-manual to
those presents, greeting.
After some diplomatic humming and hawing the
proffered terms were accepted by the government at
Vissagrada. And, under a flag of truce, a numerous
embassy was despatched to Dievize to ratify them.
Valasca, in a light, gauzy garment of sarcenet, open at the
bosom, reaching to the knee, and resplendent with gems,
mounted the steps of an extemporized throne which had
been erected on the esplanade outside the castle, and with
the cold dignity of the queen in conflict with the yielding
tenderness of the woman, addressed the brilliant congress
of male ambassadors’ “ Nobles, knights and gentlemen,
I, in the name of the ladies of my kingdom bid you
welcome to Dievize and to such hospitality as its halls
afford. For this reception, however, I make free to
advise you that you are not indebted to me and the ladies
who aid and abet me in my councils, but to the edicts of
an inexorable heaven. In this juncture, heaven has con
quered for you, and the rewards of victory are yours.
And------”
Months elapsed and the majority of the ladies were no
longer lithe and athletic. They had abandoned their
wonted indulgence in the fierce excitement of the gym
nasium, the fencing-ring, the joust and the chase. They
�14
VALASCA :
had come to pass much of the day in sedentary employ
ment and in listless reclining upon couches. The warlike
ardour, and the capacity for physical exertion had, at least
temporarily, departed. But it seemed that, from a
propitious turn of fortune, they would not require, for the
future, the martial elasticity and hardihood which had
hitherto distinguished them. A despatch had reached
them from Primislaus to the effect that, in favour of
Valasca, he voluntarily surrendered all claim to the crown
of Bohemia, being possessed of a desire to divest his
brow of royalty’s crown of thorns and return to the
peace and quiet of the plough, which he regretted he had
ever abandoned. “ 1 received the crown from a woman,
to a woman will I render it back,” said the gallant and
magnanimous King Primislaus. Aud, he requested that
Valasca should despatch a battalion or two to Vissagrada
to take formal possession of the fortress and the throne.
A detachment of lady cavaliers from Dievize were
despatched in the terms of Primislaus’ invitation. They
were not the lissome and agile amazons who erst had been
at once the delight and terror of their enemies. Each
draped in a long, loose mantle that left her form indefinite,
sat on her saddle like a sack of salt. The drawbridge
was let down and the portcullis raised, and, amid the
jangling of joybells, the blast of bugles, the thunder of
drums, ringing cheers, and every ostentatious evidence of
welcome, the cavalcade filed into the castle of Vissagrada.
In the evening the ladies from Dievize sat down to a
magnificent banquet which had been spread in their
honour. At the close of the repast, King Primislaus who
had done the ladies the honour to take his seat at the
head of the festive board, with his dagger-hilt, struck the
table three times to indicate that he demanded silence.
Silence secured, a heavy golden goblet in his hand, filled
to the brim with the richest Burgundy, he rose to propose
the toast of the evening, “The health of Valasca, from
this night forward, sole and undisputed Sovereign of
Bohemia.” He had spoken for a few minutes when, ot
a sudden, with a wild, derisive laugh, he hurled the
goblet and its contents to the roof of the banquetting
hall. In a moment, the arras all round the vast apart
�A NEW WOMAN OF THE OLDEN TIME.
15
ment lifted; and, from behind it, rushed hundreds ot
armed men. In an instant, over a wild medley of over
turned tables, broken benches, and scattered vessels and
viands, swords flashed, axes swung, and daggers stabbed
fast and fiercely. A quarter of an hour of wild cries and
thudding blows ; and then, all was silent. Down on the
rush-strewn floor amid the shattered furniture and
trampled food, lay the guests in every distorted and
horrible position into which ferocious massacre had flung
them. Almost all were dead; but a gurgling groan rose
from several which gave evidence that they still breathed
and were being drowned in the blood on the floor, in
which the murderers and their king now stood to the
ankles.
Little remains to be told. The power of Valasca was
broken. Primislaus lost no time in hurling the military
strength of his kingdom against the walls of Dievize.
Riding a spear length in advance of her bravest, Valasca
made a brilliant sortie in the attempt to cut her way
through the ring of steel that cinctured her fortifications
and cut off her supplies. Her whilom dash and spirit
had no whit deserted her. The spirit was willing;
but, the flesh was weak. She had, during the last
month’, had to let out her sword-belt by several
holes; and the blade which had been the terror of
Bohemia lacked its quondam lightning speed and lethal
precision. In the thickest and deadliest of the fight she
fell, covered with wounds, and the flower of her army,
suffering under the same disability that, had affected the
energies of their queen, fell fighting, impotently, but
devotedly, round the corpse of her they had known,
adored, and loved. Primislaus ordered that his fallen
enemy should have no burial, but be left to the beak of the
raven and the fangs of the wolf. The males remorselessly
butchered the enemy whom their own embraces had ren
dered comparatively impotent. On the night of that day
of slaughter, the moonbeams fell, white and peaceful, on
the folds of the royal standard of Primislaus as it
streamed over the battlements of Dievize. And, one of
the strangest, wildest, and least-known tragedies of the
world had closed.
�Saladin’s Recent Volumes.
Uniform style, Price 2s. 6d. each, post free 2s. 9c!.
THE HOLY LANCE.
Saladin’s Latest Volume.
A Series of Monographs in Saladin’s most trenchant and
brilliant style, full of caustic satire, Rabelaisan humour,
pathos, eloquence, and learning.
THE BOTTOMLESS PIT.
A fierce onslaught on the horrible mediaeval hell of the
orthodox Christian, written in the most intensely earnest
and caustic vein, and exposing the wickedness and
fraud of conventional religion.
JANET SMITH.
A Promiscuous Essay on Women.
A bold, daring and clever book in which the author revels
in tilting at conventional sham. Full of pathos and
poetry.
BIRDS OF PRAY.
The contrast between the preaching and the practice of
the clergy of all the churches is vividly shown in this
work, rich in historical information and resistless logic.
W. STEWART & Co., 41, FARRINGDON STREET,
LONDON, E.C.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Valasca : a new woman of the olden time
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Ross, William Stewart [1844-1906]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 15 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Valasca is a woman mentioned in the History of Bohemia by Aeneas Silvius. On the death of the mythical Princess Libussa, Valasca seized power and created a state ruled by women. "Saladin's recent volumes" listed on back cover. "by Saladin" [title page]. Saladin is the pseudonym of William Stewart Ross. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Publisher
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W. Stewart & Co.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[n.d.]
Identifier
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N599
Subject
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Women
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Valasca : a new woman of the olden time), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
NSS
Valasca (Legendary Character)
Women