Chapter Chiabreresco to Children of C by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Chicken-hearted Cowardly. Young fowls are remarkably timid, and run to the wing of the hen upon the slightest cause of alarm.

Chien Entre chien et loup. Dusk, between daylight and lamp-light; owllight.

“The best time to talk of difficult things is entre chien et loup, as the Guernsey folk say.”- Mrs. Edwardes: A Girton Girl, chap. xlvi.

Chien de Jean de Nivelle (Le), which never came when it was called. Jean de Nivelle was the eldest son of Jean II. de Montmorency, born about 1423. He espoused the cause of the Duke of Burgundy against the orders of Louis XI. and the wish of his father, who disinherited him. Bouillet says: Jean de Nivelle était devenu en France à cause du refus qu'il fit de répondre à l'appel de son roi un object de haine et de mépris; et le peuple lui donna le surnom injurieux de chien, de là le proverbe.

“Cest le chien de Jean de Nivelle
Qui s'en fuit toujours quand on l'appelle.

The Italians call this Arlotto's dog.

Child at one time, meant a female infant, and was the correlative of boy.

“Mercy on `s! A barne, a very pretty barne. A boy or a child, I wonder?”- Shakespeare: Winter's Tale, iii. 3.

Child of God (A), in the Anglican and Catholic Church, means one who has been baptised; others consider the phrase to mean one converted by special grace and adopted into the holy family of God's Church.

“In my baptism, wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven.”- Church Catechism.

Child of the Cord So the defendant was called by the judges of the vehmgericht in Westphalia, because everyone condemned by the tribunal was hanged to the branch of a tree.

Childe as Childe Harold, Childe of Ellechilde Waters, Childe Roland, Childe Tristram, Childe Arthur, etc. In all these cases the word “Childe” is a title of honour, like the infante and infanta of Spain. In the times of chivalry, the noble youths who were candidates for knighthood were, during their time of probation, called infans, valets, damoysels, and bacheliers. Childe or infant was the term given only to the most noble. (In Anglo-Saxon, the same word [cniht ] means both a child and a knight.)

Childe Harold A man sated of the world, who roams from place to place to flee from himself. The “childe” is, in fact, Lord Byron himself, who was only twenty-one when he began, and twenty-eight when he finished the poem. In canto i. (1809), he visited Portugal and Spain; in canto ii. (1810), Turkey in Europe; in canto iii. (1816), Belgium and Switzerland; and in canto iv. (1817), Venice, Rome, and Florence.

Children The children in the wood. The master of Wayland Hall, Norfolk, on his deathbed left a little son, three years old, and a still younger daughter, named Jane, to the care of his wife's brother. The boy was to have 300 a year when he came of age, and the girl 500 as a wedding portion; but, if the children died previously, the uncle was to inherit. After twelve months had elapsed, the uncle hired two ruffians to murder the two babes. As they went along one of the ruffians relented, and killed his fellow; then, putting down the children in a wood, left them. The poor babes gathered blackberries to allay their hunger, but died during the night, and “Robin Redbreast” covered them over with strawberry leaves. All things went ill with the cruel uncle; his sons died, his barns were fired, his cattle died, and he himself perished in gaol. After the lapse of seven years, the ruffian was taken up for highway robbery, and confessed the whole affair. (Percy: Reliques, iii. ii. 18.)

“Then sad he sung `The Children in the Wood.'
(Ah! barbarous uncle, stained with infant blood!)
How blackberries they plucked in deserts wild,
And fearless at the glittering falchion smiled;
Their little corpse the robin-redbreast found,
And strewed with pious bill the leaves around.”
Gay: Pastoral VI.

   Children. Three hundred and sixty-five at a birth. It is said that the Countess of Henneberg accused a beggar of adultery because she carried twins, whereupon the beggar prayed that the countess might carry as many children as there are days in the year. According to the legend, this happened on Good Friday, 1276. All the