the City of Beauvais in the year 1472. After investing it closely for
twenty-one days, his troops made a general assault, and were on the point
of carrying the place, when a band of women, headed by a lady of the name
of Jeanne Hachette, rushing to the walls, opposed such a resistance, with
showers of stones, and other missiles, that the tide of fortune was
instantaneously turned. A Burgundian officer, who attempted to plant the
duke's standard on the walls, was fiercely attacked by Jeanne Hachette,
who, snatching the standard from his hands, threw him headlong over the
wall. The assailants, in short, were completely repulsed; nor was the
distaff, once thrown aside, resumed, till the ladies of Beauvais had forced
the Duke of Burgundy to retire in shame from their walls. In memory of this
gallant achievement, the Municipality of Beauvais ordered a general
procession of the inhabitants to take place every year, on the 10th of
July, the day on which the siege was raised, in which the ladies were to
have the privilege of preceding the men. As long as Jeanne Hachette lived,
she marched in this annual procession, at the head of the women, bearing
the standard which she had captured from the Burgundian officer; and at
her death this standard was deposited in the church of the Dominicans, and
a portrait of the heroine placed in the Town-Hall of Beauvais.
Charles XII. was dictating a letter to his secretary during the siege of
Stralsund, when a bomb fell through the roof into the next room of the
house where they were sitting. The terrified secretary let the pen drop
from his hand. "What is the matter?" said Charles, calmly. The secretary
replied, "Ah, sire, the bomb!" "But what has the bomb to do," said Charles,
"with what I am dictating to you?--go on."
Gonsalvo of Cordova.--In an engagement which the Spaniards fought under
Gonsalvo of Cordova, their powder-magazine was blown up by the first
discharge of the enemy; but so far was this from discouraging the general,
that he immediately cried out to his soldiers, "My brave boys, the victory
is ours! Heaven tells us by this signal that we shall have no further
occasion for our artillery." This confidence of the general passed on to
the soldiers; they rushed to the contest, and gained a complete victory.
Algerine Captain.--Louis XIV., who had once bombarded Algiers, ordered the
Marquess du Quesne to bombard it a second time, in order to punish the
treachery and insolence of the Moors. The despair in which the Corsairs
found themselves at not being able to beat the fleet off their coasts,
caused them to bring all the French slaves, and fasten them to the mouths
of their cannon, where they were blown to pieces, the different limbs of
their bodies falling even among the French ships. An Algerine captain, who
had been taken on a cruize, and well treated by the French while he had
been their prisoner, one day perceived, among those unfortunate Frenchmen
who were doomed to the cruel fate just mentioned, an officer named
Choiseul, from whom he had received the most signal acts of kindness. The
Algerine immediately begged, entreated, and solicited in the most pressing
manner, to save the life of the generous Frenchman; but all in vain. At
last, when they were going to fire the cannon to which Choiseul was fixed,
the captain threw himself on the body of his friend, and closely embracing
him in his arms, said to the cannonier, "Fire! since I cannot serve my
benefactor, I shall at least have the consolation of dying with him." The
Dey, in whose presence this scene passed, was so affected with it, that he
commanded the French officer to be set free.
Marshal Boufflers.--A few days previous to the battle of Malplaquet, it was
publicly talked of at Versailles, that a very important battle would soon
take place between the French army commanded by Marshal Villars, and the
allied army under Prince Eugene and Marlborough. Louis XIV., who for some
years had met with many mortifying repulses, seemed to be very uneasy about
the event. Marshal Boufflers, in order to quiet in some degree the
perturbation of his sovereign's mind, offered, though a senior officer to
Villars, to go and serve under him, sacrificing all personal considerations
to the glory of his country. His proposal was accepted, and he repaired to
the camp. On his arrival, a very singular contest took place between the
two commanders. Villars desired to have Boufflers for his leader; but the
latter persisted in yielding him all the glory, while he shared the danger.
No event in the life of Boufflers ever contributed more to render his name
illustrious. Marshal Villars, who commanded the left wing at the battle,
being obliged to retire on account of a wound he had received, Marshal
Boufflers charged the enemy six times after this accident; but finding they
had made themselves master of a wood through which they penetrated into the
centre of the French army, he yielded them the field of battle, and made a
retreat in such good order, that the allies declined pursuing him.
War by Candle Light.--Shortly after the commencement of the last Peninsular
war, a tax was laid on candles, which, as a political economist would
prove, made them dearer. A Scotch wife, in Greenock, remarked to her
chandler that the price was raised, and asked why. "It's a' owin' to the
war," said he. "The war!" said the astonished matron, "gracious me! are
they gaun to fight by candle licht?"
Admiral Duncan's address to the officers of his fleet, when they came on
board his ship for his final instructions, previous to the memorable
engagement with Admiral De Winter, was couched in the following laconic and
humorous words:--"Gentlemen of my Fleet, you see a very severe WINTER fast
approaching; and I have only to advise you to keep up a good FIRE!"
A Noble Enemy.--When the _Laura_ and _Andromeda_ frigates were wrecked in a
violent hurricane in the West Indies, on the coast of the Martinique,
thirty-five men were thrown ashore alive. The Marquess de Bouille, on
hearing of the circumstance, took them to his house, where he treated them
most hospitably. After he had cured them of their bruises and sickness, and
had clothed them from head to foot, he sent them with a flag of truce to
the commanding officer of St. Lucia, with a letter, stating that these men
having experienced the horrors of shipwreck, he would not add those of war,
and had therefore set them free, and at liberty again to serve their
country.
French Grenadier.--During the assault of Thurot on the town of
Carrickfergus in 1760, an incident took place, reflecting at once the
highest lustre on the soldier concerned, and evincing the union of
consummate courage with noble humanity. Whilst the combatants were opposed
to each other in the streets, and every inch was pertinaciously disputed by
the British forces, a child by some accident escaped from a house in the
midst of the scene of action, and ran, unawed by the danger, into the
narrow interval between the hostile fronts. One of the French grenadiers
seeing the imminent danger of the child, grounded his piece; left the ranks
in the hottest fire; took the child in his arms, and placed it in safety in
the house from which it had come, and then with all possible haste returned
to resume his part in the fight.
George I.--During the siege of Fort St. Philip, a young lieutenant of
marines was so unfortunate as to lose both his legs by a chain-shot. In
this miserable and helpless condition he was conveyed to England, and a
memorial of his case presented to a board; but nothing more than half-pay
could be obtained. Major Manson had the poor lieutenant conducted to court
on a public day, in his uniform; where, posted in the ante-room, and
supported by two of his brother officers, he cried out, as the king was
passing to the drawing-room, "Behold, sire, a man who refuses to bend his
knee to you; he has lost both in your service." The king, struck no less by
the singularity of his address, than by the melancholy object before him,
stopped, and hastily demanded what had been done for him. "Half-pay,"
replied the lieutenant, "and please your majesty." "Fye, fye on't," said
the king, shaking his head; "but let me see you again next levee-day." The
lieutenant did not fail to appear, when he received from the immediate hand
of royalty a present of five hundred pounds, and an annuity of two hundred
pounds a-year for life.
Charles VI.--At the breaking out of the war against the Turks, in the year
1717, the Emperor Charles VI. of Austria took leave of his general, Prince
Eugene, with the following words: "Prince, I have set over you a general,
who is always to be called to your council, and in whose name all your
operations are to be undertaken." With this he put into his hand a
crucifix, richly set with diamonds, at the foot of which was the following
inscription, 'Jesus Christus Generalissimus.'--"Forget not," added the
Emperor, "that you are fighting his battles who shed his blood for man upon
the Cross. Under his supreme guidance, attack and overwhelm the enemies of
Christ and Christianity."
George the Second.--It was once found an impracticable task to make George
the Second acquiesce in a judgment passed by a court-martial on the conduct
of two officers high in the army. One of the officers had made himself
amenable to military law, by fighting in opposition to the orders of his
commander in chief, instead of retreating; by which act of disobedience,
the general's plans were frustrated. On these circumstances being detailed
to the king, his majesty exclaimed, "Oh! the one fight, the other run
away." "Your majesty will have the goodness to understand, that General
---- did not run away; it was necessary for the accomplishment of his
schemes, that he should cause the army to retreat at that critical moment;
this he would have conducted with his wonted skill, but for the breach of
duty in the officer under the sentence of the court-martial." "I
understand," impatiently returned the king; "one fight, he was right; the
other run away, he was wrong." It was in vain that ministers renewed their
arguments and explanations; his majesty could not, or would not, understand
the difference between a disgraceful flight and a politic retreat; they
were therefore obliged to end a discussion which merely drew forth the
repetition of the same judgment--"The one face the enemy and fight, he
right; the other turn his back and not fight, he wrong."
Ximenes.--At the siege of Oran, in Africa, Cardinal Ximenes led the Spanish
troops to the breach, mounted on a charger, dressed in his pontifical
robes, and preceded by a monk on horseback, who bore his archiepiscopal
cross. "Go on, go on, my children," exclaimed he to the soldiers, "I am at
your head. A priest should think it an honour to expose his life for his
religion. I have an example in my predecessors, in the archbishopric of
Toledo. Go on to victory." When his victorious troops took possession of
the town, he burst into tears on seeing the number of the dead that were
lying on the ground; and was heard to say to himself, "They were indeed
infidels, but they might have become Christians. By their death, they have
deprived us of the principal advantage of the victory we have gained over
them."
An Odd Grenadier.--During the famous siege of Gibraltar, in the absence of
the fleet, and when an attack was daily expected, one dark night, a
sentinel, whose post was near a tower facing the Spanish lines, was
standing at the end of his walk, looking towards them, his head filled
with nothing but fire and sword, miners, breaching, storming, and
bloodshed, while by the side of his box stood a deep narrow-necked earthen
jug, in which was the remainder of his supper, consisting of boiled pease.
A large monkey (of which there were plenty at the top of the rock),
encouraged by the man's absence, and allured by the smell of the pease,
ventured to the jug; and, in endeavouring to get at its contents, thrust
his neck so far into the jug, as to be unable to withdraw it. At this
instant, the soldier approaching, the monkey started up to escape, with the
jug on his head. This terrible monster no sooner saluted the eyes of the
sentry, than his frantic imagination converted poor pug into a
blood-thirsty Spanish grenadier, with a tremendous cap on his head. Full of
this dreadful idea, he instantly fired his piece, roaring out that the
enemy had scaled the walls. The guards took the alarm; the drums were beat;
signal-guns fired; and in less than ten minutes, the governor and his whole
garrison were under arms. The supposed grenadier, being very much
incommoded by his cap, and almost blinded by the pease, was soon overtaken
and seized; and by this capture, the tranquillity of the garrison was soon
restored, without that slaughter and bloodshed which every man had
prognosticated at the beginning of this dire alarm.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Dunning.--The witty Lord Ross, having spent all his money in London, set
out for Ireland, in order to recruit his purse. On his way, he happened to
meet with Sir Murrough O'Brien, driving for the capital in a handsome
phaëton, with six prime dun-coloured horses. "Sir Murrough," exclaimed his
lordship, "what a contrast there is betwixt you and me! You are driving
your _duns_ before you, but my _duns_ are driving me before them."
Steele & Addison.--A gentleman who was dining with another, praised the
meat very much, and asked who was the butcher? "His name is
Addison."--"Addison!" echoed the guest, "pray is he any relation to the
essayist?"--"In all probability he is, for he is seldom without his steel
(_Steele_) by his side."
A Tedious Preacher.--Mr. Canning was once asked by an English clergyman how
he liked the sermon he had preached before him. "Why, it was a short
sermon," quoth Canning. "Oh yes," said the preacher; "you know I avoid
being tedious." "Ah, but," replied Canning, "you _were_ tedious."
Charity sermon.--Sydney Smith, preaching a charity sermon, frequently
repeated the assertion that, of all nations, Englishmen were most
distinguished for generosity and the love of their species. The collection
happened to be inferior to his expectations, and he said that he had
evidently made a great mistake, for that his expression should have been,
that they were distinguished for the love of their _specie_.
Pope the Poet.--This celebrated poet is said to have been once severely
retorted upon. A question arose in company respecting the reading of a
passage with or without a note of interrogation. Pope rather arrogantly
asked one gentleman if he knew what a note of interrogation was. "Yes, sir:
it is _a little crooked thing that asks questions_." Pope was little and
deformed.
Estimate of Greatness.--Pope was with Sir Godfrey Kneller one day, when his
nephew, a Guinea trader, came in. "Nephew," said Sir Godfrey, "you have the
honour of seeing the two greatest men in the world."--"I don't know how
great you may be," said the Guinea-man, "but I don't like your looks: I
have often bought a man much better than both of you together, all muscles
and bones, for ten guineas."
"Rejected Addresses."--The fame of the brothers James and Horatio Smith was
confined to a limited circle, until the publication of "The Rejected
Addresses." James used to dwell with much pleasure on the criticism of a
Leicestershire clergyman: "I do not see why they ('The Addresses') should
have been rejected: I think some of them very good." This, he would add, is
almost as good as the avowal of the Irish Bishop, that there were some
things in "Gulliver's Travels" which he could not believe.
The Two Smith's.--A gentleman took lodgings in the same house with James
Smith, one of the celebrated authors of the "Rejected Addresses." His name
was also James Smith. The consequence was an eternal confusion of calls and
letters, and the postman had no alternative but to share the letters
equally between the two. "This is intolerable, sir," said our author, "you
must quit." "Why am I to quit more than you?" "Because you came last, and
being James the Second you must _abdicate_."
Coleridge, the Poet, once dined in company with a person who listened to
the conversation and said nothing for a long time; but occasionally nodded
his head, and Coleridge concluded him a thoughtful and intelligent man. At
length, towards the end of the dinner, some apple dumplings were placed on
the table, and the listener had no sooner seen them than he burst forth,
"Them's the fellows for me!" Coleridge adds: "I wish Spurzheim could have
examined the fellow's head."
An Appropriate Successor.--Clerambault, who was deformed, was elected to
succeed La Fontaine in the French Academy. On that occasion it was said
that "La Fontaine was very properly succeeded by Esop."
Erskine.--Lord Kellie was amusing the company with an account of a sermon
he had heard in Italy, in which the preacher related the miracle of St.
Anthony preaching to the fishes, who, in order to listen to his pious
discourse, held their heads out of the water. "I can credit the miracle,"
said Erskine, "if your lordship was at church." "I certainly was there,"
said the peer. "Then, rejoined Erskine, there was at least _one fish out of
water_."
Memory.--A humorous comment on this system of artificial memory was made by
a waiter at an hotel where Feinaigle dined, after having given his lecture
on that subject. A few minutes after the Professor left the table, the
waiter entered, with uplifted hands and eyes, exclaiming, "Well, I declare,
the _memory man_ has forgotten his umbrella!"
Parisian rag-picker.--An old chiffonnier (or rag picker) died in Paris in a
state apparently of the most abject poverty. His only relation was a niece,
who lived as servant with a greengrocer. This girl always assisted her
uncle as far as her slender means would permit. When she heard of his
death, which took place suddenly, she was upon the point of marriage with a
journeyman baker, to whom she had been long attached. The nuptial day was
fixed, but Suzette had not yet bought her wedding clothes. She hastened to
tell her lover that their marriage must be deferred, as she wanted the
price of her bridal finery to lay her uncle decently in the grave. Her
mistress ridiculed the idea, and exhorted her to leave the old man to be
buried by charity. Suzette refused. The consequence was a quarrel, in which
the young woman lost at once her place and her lover, who sided with her
mistress. She hastened to the miserable garret where her uncle had expired,
and by the sacrifice not only of her wedding attire, but of nearly all the
rest of her slender wardrobe, she had the old man decently interred. Her
pious task fulfilled, she sat alone in her uncle's room weeping bitterly,
when the master of her faithless lover, a young good-looking man, entered.
"So, my good Suzette, I find you have lost your place!" cried he, "I am
come to offer you one for life--will you marry me?" "I, Sir? you are
joking." "No, indeed, I want a wife, and I am sure I can't find a better."
"But everybody will laugh at you for marrying a poor girl like me," "Oh! if
that is your only objection we shall soon get over it; come, come along; my
mother is prepared to receive you." Suzette hesitated no longer; but she
wished to take with her a memorial of her deceased uncle: it was a cat
that he had kept for many years. The old man was so fond of the animal
that he was determined even death should not separate them, and he had
caused her to be stuffed and placed near his bed. As Suzette took puss
down, she uttered an exclamation of surprise at finding her so heavy. The
lover hastened to open the animal, when out fell a shower of gold. There
were a thousand louis concealed in the body of the cat, and this sum, which
the old man had contrived to amass, became the just reward of the worthy
girl and her disinterested lover.
Integrity.--A Parisian stock-broker, just before his death, laid a wager on
parole with a rich capitalist; and a few weeks after his death, the latter
visited the widow and gave her to understand that her late husband had lost
a wager of sixteen thousand francs. She went to her secretary, took out her
pocket-book, and counted bank notes to the stated amount, when the
capitalist thus addressed her: "Madame, as you give such convincing proof
that you consider the wager binding, _I_ have to pay you sixteen thousand
francs. Here is the sum, for _I_ am the loser, and not your husband."
During the speculations of 1837-38, Mr. C., a young merchant of
Philadelphia, possessed of a handsome fortune, caught the mania, entered
largely into its operations, and for a time was considered immensely rich.
But when the great revulsion occurred he was suddenly reduced to
bankruptcy. His young wife immediately withdrew from the circles of wealth
and fashion, and adapted her expenses, family and personal, to her altered
circumstances. At the time of Mr. C.'s failure, his wife was in debt to
Messrs. Stewart and Company, merchants of Philadelphia, about two hundred
dollars for articles which she had used personally. This debt, she had no
means of liquidating. However after the lapse of twelve years, and when the
creditors had of course looked upon the debt as lost, Mrs. C. was able to
take the principal, add to it twelve years' interest, enclose the whole in
a note and address it to Messrs. Stewart and Company. Messrs. Stewart and
Company, upon the receipt of the money, addressed a note in reply to Mrs.
C., in which they requested her acceptance of the accompanying gift, as a
slight testimonial of their high appreciation of an act so honourable and
so rare as to call forth unqualified admiration. Accompanying the letter
was sent a superb brocade silk dress, and some laces of exquisite texture
and great value.
Costume of the Sisters of Charity.--The Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul, at
the time of their re-establishment in their house, in the _Rue du Vieux
Colombier_, after the Revolution, wore black dresses and caps. On the
fourth Sunday in Advent, 1804, Pope Pius the Seventh visited the community.
He seemed surprised that the Sisters had not resumed the habit of their
order; but he was told that no community had dared to show the religious
habit abroad. He then spoke to the emperor, saying to him that the good
daughters of charity "_looked like widows_." The emperor, at his request,
gave authority to the Sisters to wear their habit, and they resumed it in
the spring of 1805.
China-ware.--An English gentleman wanting a dessert-service of porcelain
made after a particular pattern, sent over to China a specimen dish,
ordering that it should be exactly copied for the whole service. It
unfortunately happened that in the dish so sent over the Chinese
manufacturer discovered a crack; the consequence was, that the entire
service sent over to the party ordering it had a crack in each article,
carefully copied from the original.
Dreaming.--It is a custom among the Canadian Indians, that when one dreams
that another has rendered him any service, the person dreamed of thinks it
a duty to fulfil the dream, if possible. A chief one morning came to the
governor, Sir William Johnstone, and told him that he had last night
dreamed that Sir William had made him a present of the suit of regimentals
he wore. The governor readily presented them to him; but as the Indian was
going out, "Stop," said Sir William, "I had almost forgot, but I dreamed
about you last night; I dreamed that you gave me such a piece of land,"
describing a large tract. "You shall have it," said he, "but if you please,
Sir William, we will _not dream any more_."
Lessing was remarkable for a frequent absence of mind. Having missed money
at different times, without being able to discover who took it, he
determined to put the honesty of his servant to a trial, and left a handful
of gold on the table. "Of course you counted it?" said one of his friends.
"Count it!" said Leasing, rather embarrassed; "no, I forgot that."