A FRENCH Field Marshal who had attained that rank by court favour, not
by valour, received from a lady the present of a drum, with this
inscription--"_made to be beaten_."
The same _hero_, going one evening to the Opera, forcibly took
possession of the box of a respectable Abbe, who for this outrage
brought a suit in a court of honour, established for such cases under
the old government. The Abbe thus addressed the court: "I come not here
to complain of Admiral Suffrein, who took so many ships in the East
Indies. I come not to complain of Count de Grasse, who fought so nobly
in the West; I come not to complain of the Duke de Crebillon, who took
Minorca; but I come to complain of the Marshal B----, who _took my box_
at the Opera, and _never took any thing else_." The court paid him the
high compliment of refusing his suit, declaring that he had himself
inflicted sufficient punishment.