Part 3 (2/2)

General Mackenzie, when commander-in-chief of the Chatham division of marines, during the late war, was very rigid as to duty; and, among other regulations, would suffer no officer to be saluted on guard if out of his uniform. It one day happened that the general observed a lieutenant of marines in a plain dress, and, though he knew the young officer quite intimately, he called to the sentinel to turn him out. The officer appealed to the general, saying who he was; ”I know you not,” said the general; ”turn him out.” A short time after, the general had been at a small distance from Chatham, to pay a visit, and returning in the evening in a blue coat, claimed entrance at the yard gate. The sentinel demanded the countersign, which the general not knowing, desired the officer of the guard to be sent for, who proved to be the lieutenant whom the general had treated so cavalierly.--”Who are you?” inquired the officer.--”I am General Mackenzie,” was the reply.--”What, without an uniform?” rejoined the lieutenant; ”oh, get back, get back, impostor; the general would break your bones if he knew you a.s.sumed his name.” The general on this made his retreat; and the next day, inviting the young officer to breakfast, told him--”He had done his duty with very commendable exactness.”

Morvilliers, keeper of the seals to Charles the Ninth of France, was one day ordered by his sovereign to put the seals to the pardon of a n.o.bleman who had committed murder. He refused. The king then took the seals out of his hands, and having put them himself to the instrument of remission, returned them immediately to Morvilliers, who refused to take them again, saying, ”The seals have twice put me in a situation of great honour: once when I received them, and again when I resigned them.”

Louis the Fourteenth had granted a pardon to a n.o.bleman who had committed some very great crime. M. Voisin, the chancellor, ran to him in his closet, and exclaimed, ”Sire, you cannot pardon a person in the situation of Mr. ----.” ”I have promised him,” replied the king, who was always impatient of contradiction; ”go and fetch the great seal.” ”But sire--.”

”Pray, sir, do as I order you.” The chancellor returned with the seals; Louis applied them himself to the instrument containing the pardon, and gives them again to the chancellor. ”They are polluted, now, sire,”

exclaimed the intrepid and excellent magistrate, pus.h.i.+ng them from him on the table, ”I cannot take them again.” ”What an impracticable man!” cried the monarch, and threw the pardon into the fire. ”I will now, sire, take them again,” said the chancellor; ”fire purifies all things.”

FIDELITY.

Old Ambrose.--Among the few individuals who accompanied James II. to France, when he was dethroned, was Madame de Varonne, a lady of good family, but of ruined fortune. She was compelled to part with all her servants successively, until she came to her footman, Ambrose, who had lived with her twenty years; and who, although of an austere deportment, was a faithful and valuable servant. At length her resources would not permit her to retain even Ambrose, and she told him he must seek another place. ”Another place!” exclaimed the astonished servant; ”No; I will never quit you, let what will happen; I will live and die in your service.” In vain was Ambrose told by his mistress that she was totally ruined; that she had sold every thing she had, and that she had no other means of subsistence than by seeking some employment for herself. Ambrose protested he would not quit his mistress; he brought her his scanty savings of twenty years, and engaged himself to a brazier for tenpence a day and his board.

The money he brought every evening to his mistress, whom he thus supported for four years; at the end of which time she received a pension from the French king, which enabled her to reward the remarkable fidelity of her old servant.

The Kennedies.--Mr. Pennant, in his Tour in Scotland, relates the following circ.u.mstance, which shows that a sense of honour may prevail in those who have little regard to moral obligation:--After the battle of Culloden, in the year 1745, a reward of thirty thousand pounds was offered to any one who should discover or deliver up the young Pretender. He had taken refuge with the Kennedies, two common thieves, who protected him with the greatest fidelity, robbed for his support, and often went in disguise to Inverness to purchase provisions for him. A considerable time afterwards one of these men, who had resisted the temptation of thirty thousand pounds from a regard to his honour, was hanged for stealing a cow of the value of thirty s.h.i.+llings.

A young woman, named La Blonde, was in the service of M. Migeon, a furrier, in the Rue St. Honore, in Paris; this tradesman, though embarra.s.sed in his affairs, was not deserted by his faithful domestic, who remained at his house without receiving any salary. Migeon, some years afterwards died, leaving a wife and two young children without the means of support. The cares of La Blonde were now transferred to the a.s.sistance of the distressed family of her deceased master, for whose support she expended fifteen hundred francs, the fruit of her labour, as well as the produce of rent from her small patrimony. From time to time this worthy servant was offered other situations, but to all such offers she replied by the inquiry, ”Who will take care of this family if I desert them?” At length the widow Migeon, overcome with grief, became seriously ill. La Blonde pa.s.sed her days in comforting her dying mistress, and at night went to take care of the sick, in order to have the means of relieving her wants. The widow Migeon died on the 28th of April, 1787. Some persons then proposed to La Blonde to send the two little orphans to the poor house; but the generous girl, indignant at this proposition, replied, ”that at Ruel, her native country, her two hundred livres of rent would suffice for their subsistence and her own.”

A Faithful Depositary.--Under the ministry of Neckar in France, the receiver of taxes at Roye, in Picardy, had the misfortune to have his premises burnt,--cattle, furniture, and every thing became the prey of the flames, except two thousand livres of the king's money, the produce of the taxes which he had collected. These the courageous man rescued from the flames, and the next day lodged them in the hands of the provincial director. When Neckar was apprised of the fact, he laid it before the king, and afterwards wrote to the receiver with his own hand as follows: ”His Majesty having been informed of the circ.u.mstance of your loss, and being pleased with the conduct you have displayed, returns you the 2000 livres, which he desires you will keep as a testimony of his esteem.”

FONTENELLE.

A Reproof.--Two youngsters once asked Fontenelle whether it was more correct to say, _donnez-nous a boire_, (give us to drink), or _apportez-nous a boire_, (bring us drink). The academician replied, ”That both were unappropriate in their mouths; and that the proper term for such fellows as they was _menez-nous a boire_, lead us to drink.”

Fontenelle was once staying with his nephew, M. Aube, and had the misfortune to let a spark fall upon his clothes, which set fire to the bed, and eventually to the room. M. Aube was extremely angry with his uncle, and shewed him what precautions he ought to have taken to prevent such an accident. ”My dear nephew,” replied Fontenelle, calmly, ”when I set fire to your house again, depend upon it I will act differently.”

Fontenelle, being praised for the clearness of his style on the deepest subjects, said, ”If I have any merit, it is that I have always endeavoured to understand myself.”

The conversation turning one day, in the presence of Fontenelle, on the marks of originality in the works of Father Castel, well known to the scientific world for his ”Vrai Systeme de Physique generale de Newton;”

some person observed, ”but he is mad.” ”I know it,” returned Fontenelle, ”and I am very sorry for it, for it is a great pity. But I like him better for being original and a little mad, than I should if he were in his senses without being original.”

FOOLS.

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