Lenormand

( Mdlle. ), a famous tireuse de cartes . She was a squat, fu y, little old woman, with a gnarled and knotted visage, and an imperturbable eye. She wore her hair cut short, and parted on one side, like that of a man; dre ed in an odd-looking casaquin , embroidered and frogged like the jacket of an hu ar; and snuffed continually. This was the little old woman whom Napoleon I. regularly consulted before setting out on a campaign. Mdlle. Lenormand foretold to Josephine her divorce; and when Murat, king of Naples, visited her in disguise, she gave him the cards to cut, and he cut four times in succe ion le grand pendu (king of diamonds); whereupon Mdlle. rose and said, “La séance est term inée; c’est dix louis pour les rois;” pocketed the fee, and left the room taking snuff. (In cartomancy, le grand pendu signifies that the person to which it is dealt, or who cuts it, will die by the hands of the executioner.) executioner.) Lent ( Galeazzo’s ), a form of torture devised by Galeazzo Visconti, calculated to prolong the victim’s life for forty days.