are such whose ports are either in the head (and then they are used in chafing of others); or in the stern, which are only useful when they are pursued or chased by any other ship.

CHASE of a Gun, is the whole bore or length of a piece taken withinside.

Wild-geese CHASE, a term used to express a sort of racing on horseback used formerly, which resembled the flying of wild geese; those birds generally going in a train one after another, not in confused flocks as other birds do. In this sort of race the two horses, after running twelve score yards, had liberty, which horse forever could take the leading, to ride what ground the jockey pleased, the hindmost horse being bound to follow him within a certain distance agreed on by the articles, or else to be whipped in by the tryers and judges who rode by; and whichever horse could distance the other won the race. This sort of racing was not long in common use; for it was found inhuman, and destructive to good horses, when two such were matched together. For in this case neither was able to distance the other till they were both ready to sink under their riders; and often two very good good horses were both spoiled, and the wagers forced to be drawn at last. The mischief of this sort of racing soon brought in the method now in use, of running only for a certain quantity of ground, and determining the plate or wager by the coming in first at the post.

**CHASING of Gold, Silver, &c.** See **ENCHASING.**

**CHASTE TREE.** See **VITEX**, **BOTANY Index.**

**CHASTITY;** Purity of the body, or freedom from obscenity.—The Roman law justifies homicide in defense of the chastity either of one's self or relations; and so also, according to Selden, stood the law in the Jewish republic. Our law likewise justifies a woman for killing a man who attempts to ravish her. So the husband or father may justify killing a man who attempts a rape upon his wife or daughter; but not if he takes them in adultery by consent; for the one is forcible and felonious, but not the other.

Chastity is a virtue universally celebrated. There is indeed no charm in the female sex that can supply its place. Without it, beauty is unlovely, and rank is contemptible; good breeding degenerates into wantonness, and wit into impudence. Out of the numerous instances of eminent chastity recorded by authors, the two following are selected on account of the lesson afforded by the different modes of conduct which they exhibit.

Lucretia was lady of great beauty and noble extraction; she married Collatinus, a relation of Tarquinius Superbus king of Rome. During the siege of Ardea, which lasted much longer than was expected, the young princes passed their time in entertainments and diversions. One day as they were at supper* at Sextus Tarquin's, the king's eldest son, with Collatinus, Lucretia's husband, the conversation turned on the merit of their wives: every one gave his own the preference. "What signify so many words?" says Collatinus; "you may in a few hours, if you please, be convinced by your own eyes, how much my Lucretia excels the rest. We are young; let us mount our horses, and go and surprize them. Nothing can better decide our dispute than the state we shall find them in at a time when most certainly they will not expect us." They were a little warmed with wine: "Come on, let us go," they all cried together. They quickly galloped to Rome, which was about twenty miles from Ardea, where they find the princesses, wives of the young Tarquins, surrounded with company, and every circumstance of the highest mirth and pleasure. From thence they rode to Collatia, where they saw Lucretia in a very different situation. With her maids about her, she was at work in the inner part of her house, talking of the dangers to which her husband was exposed. The victory was adjudged to her unanimously. She received her guests with all possible politeness and civility. Lucretia's virtue, which should have commanded respect, was the very thing which kindled in the breast of Sextus Tarquin a strong and detestable passion. Within a few days he returned to Collatia; and upon the plausible excuse he made for his visit, he was received with all the politeness due to a near relation, and the eldest son of a king. Watching the fittest opportunity, he declared the passion she had excited at his last visit, and employed the most tender entreaties, and all the artifices possible to touch a woman's heart; but all to no purpose. He then endeavored chastity to extort her compliance by the most terrible threatenings. It was in vain. She still persisted in her resolution; nor could she be moved even by the fear of death. But when the monster told her that he would first dispatch her, and then having murdered a slave, would lay him by her side, after which he would spread a report, that having caught them in the act of adultery, he had punished them as they deserved; this seemed to shake her resolution. She hesitated, not knowing which of these dreadful alternatives to take, whether, by consenting to dishonor the bed of her husband, whom she tenderly loved; or, by refusing, to die under the odious character of having prostituted her person to the lust of a slave. He saw the struggle of her soul; and seizing the unlucky moment, obtained an inglorious conquest. Thus, Lucretia's virtue, which had been proof against the fear of death, could not hold out against the fear of infamy. The young prince having gratified his passion, returned home as in triumph. On the morrow, Lucretia overwhelmed with grief and despair, sent early in the morning to defile her father and her husband to come to her, and bring with them each a trusty friend, assuring them there was no time to lose. They came with all speed, the one accompanied with Valerius (so famous after under the name of Publicola), and the other with Brutus. The moment she saw them come, she could not command her tears; and when her husband asked her if all was well? "By no means," said she, "it cannot be well with a woman after she has lost her honour. Yes, Collatinus, thy bed has been defiled by a stranger; but my body only is polluted; my mind is innocent, as my death shall witness. Promise me only not to suffer the adulterer to go unpunished: it is Sextus Tarquinius, who last night, a treacherous guest, or rather cruel foe, offered me violence, and reaped a joy fatal to me; but, if you are men, it will be still more fatal to him." All promised to revenge her; and at the same time, tried to comfort her with representing, "That the mind only sins, not the body; and where the consent is wanting, there can be no guilt." "What Sextus deserves," replies Lucretia, "I leave you to judge; but for me, though I declare myself innocent of the crime, I exempt not myself from punishment. No immaculate woman shall plead Lucretia's example to outlive her dishonor." Thus saying, she plunged into her breast a dagger she had concealed under her robe, and expired at their feet. Lucretia's tragic death has been praised and extolled by Pagan writers, as the highest and most noble act of heroism. The Godf thinks not so: it is murder, even according to Lucretia's own principles, since she punished with death an innocent person, at least acknowledged as such by herself. She was ignorant that our life is not in our own power, but in his disposal from whom we receive it. St Austin, who carefully examines, in his book De Civitate Dei, what we are to think of Lucretia's death, considers it not as a courageous action flowing from a true love of chastity, but as an infirmity—a woman too sensible of worldly fame and glory; and who, from a dread of appearing in the eyes of men an accomplice of the violence she abhorred, and of a crime to which she was entirely a stranger, commits a real crime upon herself voluntarily and designedly. But what cannot Chastity be sufficiently admired in this Roman lady, is her abhorrence of adultery, which she seems to hold so detestable as not to bear the thoughts of it. In this sense, she is a noble example for all her sex.

Chiomara, the wife of Ortigagon, a Gaulish prince, was equally admirable for her beauty and chastity.

During the war between the Romans and the Gauls, A. R. 563, the latter were totally defeated on Mount Olympus. Chiomara, among many other ladies, was taken prisoner, and committed to the care of a centurion, no less passionate for money than women. He at first endeavoured to gain her consent to his infamous desires; but not being able to prevail upon her, and subvert her constancy, he thought he might employ force with a woman whom misfortune had reduced to slavery. Afterwards, to make her amends for that treatment, he offered to restore her liberty: but not without ransom. He agreed with her for a certain sum, and to conceal this design from the other Romans, he permitted her to send any of the prisoners she should choose to her relations, and assigned a place near the river where the lady should be exchanged for gold. By accident there was one of her own slaves among the prisoners. Upon him she fixed; and the centurion soon after carried her beyond the advanced posts, under cover of a dark night. The next evening two of the relations of the princess came to the place appointed, whither the centurion also carried his captive. When they had delivered him the Attic talent they had brought, which was the sum they had agreed on, the lady, in her own language, ordered those who came to receive her to draw their swords and kill the centurion, who was then amusing himself with weighing the gold. Then, charmed with having revenged the injury done her chastity, she took the head of the officer, which she had cut off with her own hands, and hiding it under her robe, went to her husband Ortigagon, who had returned home after the defeat of his troops. As soon as he came into his presence, she threw the centurion's head at his feet. He was strangely surprised at such a sight: and asked her whose head it was, and what had induced her to do an act so uncommon to her sex? With her face covered with a sudden blush, and at the same time expressing her fierce indignation, she declared the outrage which had been done her, and the revenge she had taken for it. During the rest of her life, she steadfastly retained the same attachment for the purity of manners which constitutes the principal glory of the sex, and nobly sustained the honour of so glorious, bold, and heroic an action.—This lady was much more prudent than Lucretia, in revenging her injured honour by the death of her ravisher, rather than by her own. Plutarch relates this fact, in his treatise upon the virtue and great actions of women; and it is from him we have the name of this, which is well worthy of being transmitted to posterity.

The above virtue in men is termed continence. See Continence.