A story for every day...
Salome and the head of Saint John the Baptist.
Salome, the daughter of Herodias, had asked King Herod to bring her the head of John the Baptist as a reward. Herod did what this perverse daughter asked, and St. John was beheaded. – Later, the Roman emperor Caligula exiled Herod and his family to Spain. Salome often skated in winter on the river Sicoris near Ilerda, and one day she sank into the water up to her neck. Struggling to get back up, she broke the ice around her and the sharp ice cubes clashing separated the head of the unfortunate woman from the trunk. This is what the historian Nicephore tells us.
Anne of Boleyn, wife of Henry VIII.
Anne of Boleyn was maid of honor to the Queen of England, Catherine of Aragon. Because of her, King Henry VIII repudiated his lawful wife and persecuted the Catholics who disapproved of his marriage to Anne. – Shortly after the death of Catherine of Aragon, the king’s first wife (1536), a lady-in-waiting of Anne of Boleyn, gained the favor of the king, who had separated from the Church, and inspired him with an aversion to his second wife. The king repudiated her in turn and sent her to the scaffold to marry this maid of honor, whose name was Jeanne Seymour.
This tragic end proves the truth of the proverb: “One is punished by where one has sinned.” Punishment is, in a sense, a photograph of the crime.
