FAUNTLEROY

fauntleroy, henry (1785-1824), english banker and forger, was born in 1785. after seven years as a clerk in the london bank of marsh, sibbald & co., of which his father was one of the founders, he was taken into partnership, and the whole business of the firm was left in his hands. in 1824 the bank suspended payment. fauntleroy was arrested on the charge of appropriating trust funds by forging the trustees' signatures, and was committed for trial, it being freely rumoured that he had appropriated l250,000, which he had squandered in debauchery. he was tried at the old bailey, and, the case against him having been proved, he admitted his guilt, but pleaded that he had used the misappropriated funds to pay his firm's debts. he was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. seventeen merchants and bankers gave evidence as to his general integrity at the trial, and after his conviction powerful influence was brought to bear on his behalf, and his case was twice argued before judges on points of law. an italian named angelini even offered to take fauntleroy's place on the scaffold. the efforts of his many friends were, however, unavailing, and he was executed on the 30th of november 1824. a wholly unfounded rumour was widely credited for some time subsequently to the effect that he had escaped strangulation by inserting a silver tube in his throat, and was living comfortably abroad. see a. griffith's _chronicles of newgate_, ii. 294-300, and pierce egan's _account of the trial of mr fauntleroy_. faunus (i.e. the "kindly," from lat. _favere_, or the "speaker," from _fari_), an old italian rural deity, the bestower of fruitfulness on fields and cattle. as such he is akin to or identical with inuus ("fructifier") and lupercus (see lupercalia). faunus also revealed the secrets of the future by strange sounds from the woods, or by visions communicated to those who slept within his precincts in the skin of sacrificed lambs; he was then called fatuus, and with him was associated his wife or daughter fatua. under greek influence he was identified with pan, and just as there was supposed to be a number of panisci, so the existence of many fauni was assumed--misshapen and mischievous goblins of the forest, with pointed ears, tails and goat's feet, who loved to torment sleepers with hideous nightmares. in poetical tradition faunus is an old king of latium, the son of picus (mars) and father of latinus, the teacher of agriculture and cattle-breeding, and the introducer of the religious system of the country, honoured after death as a tutelary divinity. two festivals called faunalia were celebrated in honour of faunus, one on the 13th of february in his temple on the island in the tiber, the other in the country on the 5th of december (ovid, _fasti_, ii. 193; horace, _odes_, iii. 18. 10). at these goats were sacrificed to him with libations of wine and milk, and he was implored to be propitious to fields and flocks. the peasants and slaves at the same time amused themselves with dancing in the meadows.