We shall conclude this chapter with some Extraordinary Instances of Longevity.

In October, 1712, a prodigy is said to have appeared in France, in the person of one Nicholas Petours, who one day entered the town of Coutances. His appearance excited curiosity, as it was observed that he had travelled on foot: he therefore gave the following account of himself, viz. That he was one hundred and eighteen years of age, being born at Granville, near the sea, in the year 1594 ; that he was by trade a shoemaker; and had walked from St. Malo's to Coutances, which is twenty-four leagues distant, in two days. He seemed as active as a young man. He said, " He came to attend the event of a lawsuit, and that he had had four wives ; with the first of whom he lived fifty years, the second only twenty months, and the third twenty-eight years and two months, and that to the fourth he had been married two years; that he had had children by the three former, and could boast a posterity which consisted of one hundred and nineteen persons, and extended to the seventh generation." He further stated, "that his family had been as remarkable for longevity as himself; that his mother lived until 1691; and that his father, in consequence of having been wounded, died at the age of one hundred and twenty-three, that his uncle and godfather, Nicholas Petours, curate of the parish of Balcine, and afterward canon and treasurer of the cathedral of Coutances, died there, aged above one hundred and thirty-seven years, having celebrated mass five days before his decease. Jacqueline Fau-vel, wife to the park-keeper of the bishop of Coutances, (he said,) died in consequence of a fright, in the village of St. Nicholas, aged one hundred and twenty-one years, and that she was able to spin eight days before her decease." Among the refugees from this part of France, we have known and heard of many instances of longevity, but certainly none equal to these