Chapter Le'a to Learn of L by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

chanter une autre chanson. ” But in English, “To make a person sing another tune,” means to make him eat his words, or change his note for one he will not like so well.

League
   The Grey League [lia grischa ]. 15th century. So called from the grey homespun dress adopted by the leaguers.
   The Holy League. Several leagues are so denominated. The three following are the most important, 1511, by Pope Julius II.; Ferdinand the Catholic, Henry VIII, the Venetians, and the Swiss against Louis XII.: and that of 1576, founded at Péronne for the maintenance of the Catholic faith and the exclusion of Protestant princes from the throne of France. This league was organised by the Guises to keep Henri IV. from the throne.

Leak Out (To). To come clandestinely to public knowledge. As a liquid leaks out of an unsound vessel, so the secret oozes out unawares.

Leal Loyal, trusty, law-abiding. Norman-French, leyale, modern French, loyale; Latin, legalis.)
   Land of the leal. (See Land ...)

Leander (3 syl.) A young man of Abydos, who swam nightly across the Hellespont to visit his lady- love, Hero, a priestess of Sestos. One night he was drowned in his attempt, and Hero leaped into the Hellespont also. This story is told in one of the poems of Musaeus, entitled Hero and Leander. (See Marlowe's poem.) (See Hero .)
    Lord Byron and Lieutenant Ekenhead repeated the experiment of Leander and accomplished it in 1 hour 10 minutes. The distance, allowing for drifting, would be about four miles. A young man of St. Croix, in 1817, swam over the Sound from Cronenburgh, in 2 hours 40 minutes, the distance being six miles.

Leaning Tower The one at Pisa, in Italy, is 178 feet in height, and leans about 14 feet. At Caerphilly, in Glamorganshire, there is a tower which leans eleven feet in eighty.

“The Leaning Tower of Pisa continues to stand because the vertical line drawn through its centre of gravity passes within its base.”- Ganot: Physics.

Leap Year Every year divisible by four. Such years occur every fourth year. In ordinary years the day of the month which falls on Monday this year, will fall on Tuesday next year, and Wednesday the year after; but the fourth year will leap over Thursday to Friday. This is because a day is added to February, which, of course, affects every subsequent day of the year. (See Bissextile .)
   The ladies propose, and, if not accepted, claim a silk gown. St. Patrick, having “driven the frogs out of the bogs,” was walking along the shores of Lough Neagh, when he was accosted by St. Bridget in tears, and was told that a mutiny had broken out in the nunnery over which she presided, the ladies claiming the right of “popping the question.” St. Patrick said he would concede them the right every seventh year, when St. Bridget threw her arms round his neck, and exclaimed, “Arrah, Pathrick, jewel, I daurn't go back to the girls wid such a proposal. Make it one year in four.” St. Patrick replied, “Bridget, acushla, squeeze me that way again, an' I'll give ye leap-year, the longest of the lot.” St. Bridget, upon this, popped the question to St. Patrick himself, who, of course, could not marry: so he patched up the difficulty as best he could with a kiss and a silk gown.
    The story told above is of no historic value, for an Act of the Scottish Parliament, passed in the year 1228, has been unearthed which runs thus:-

“Ordonit that during ye reign of her maist blessed maiestie, Margaret, ilka maiden, ladee of baith high and lowe estait, shall hae libertie to speak ye man she likes. Gif he refuses to tak hir to bee his wyf, he shale be mulct in the sum of ane hundridty pundes, or less, as his estait may bee, except and alwais gif he can make it appeare that he is betrothit to anither woman, then he schal be free.”

   N.B. The year 1228 was, of course, a leap-year.

Leap in the Dark (A). Thomas Hobbes is reported to have said on his death-bed, “Now am I about to take my last voyage- a great leap in the dark.” Rabelais, in his last moments, said, “I am going to the Great Perhaps.” Lord Derby, in 1868, applied the words, “We are about to take a leap in the dark,” to the Reform Bill.