XII. THE LATEST INFORMATION. M. de E was relating a story. M. de B said to him, "That cannot be, for I have a letter of the 31st, which says the contrary." "Ah,” replied the narrator," but mine is of the 32d !"

XIII. IMMORTALITY.

Bautru, in presenting a poet to M. d'Hemery, addressed him, "Sir, I present to you a person who will give you immortality; but you must give him something to live upon in the meantime."

XIV. THE CURATE OF ANJOU.

A curate in Anjou, a man of very disorderly habits, had a quarrel with a sergeant of the neighbourhood. The sergeant having suddenly disappeared, every one suspected the curate, his avowed enemy, of having made away with him. It happened that a criminal, who had been executed, was exposed on the gallows, within a league or two of the curate's residence. His relations took down the body secretly, and threw it, with the cord about its neck, into a neighbouring pond. Some fishermen found the body in their nets, and the matter being taken up by the police, every one flocked to see the corpse of the criminal. As it was extremely disfigured, the prejudices which were universally entertained against the curate, led them to believe that this must be the body of the sergeant. The curate was immediately arrested, tried, and condemned to be hanged. When he saw that death was inevitable, he thus addressed his judges. "It is true that it was I that murdered the sergeant; but I am unjustly condemned, and all those who have given evidence against me are false witnesses. The body which you have found, and on account

of which I have been tried, is not that of the sergeant. The real corpse of the sergeant will be found in a certain part of my garden, along with that of his dog." The judges immediately instituted a search within the garden of the curé, and everything was found to be as he had described.

XV. THE RETORT COURTEOUS.

M. le Comte de was, like many others who take the name of Count, without the property. In a company where I was present, he once endeavoured to turn into ridicule an abbé, who, according to custom, had assumed the name, without possessing a benefice. "It is strange," said he, "that we should have known each other so long, and yet that I don't know whereabouts your abbey lies." "What!" said the abbé, " don't you know? It is within your county."

XVI. AN AGREEABLE ANTAGONIST.

We are never so well pleased with an antagonist, as when he makes an objection to which we are provided with a good answer.

XVII. CASAUBON.

Casaubon being present during the discussion of a thesis in the Sorbonne, listened to a very long and stubborn dispute, which was carried on in a style so barbarous and unintelligible to him, that he could not help remarking, as he left the hall, "I never listened to so much Latin before without understanding it!"

XVIII. M. DE L'ESTANG AND MAROLLES.

M. de l'Estang is the author of the Portroyal Règles de bien Traduire. He has selected all his specimens of good translation from the works of Dablancourt or Portroyal, and those of bad translation from the writings of Marolles, who, in

!

truth, thought rather of making many volumes than good ones. M. de Marolles was greatly enraged at this, and complained of it loudly. M. de l'Estang, anxious to conciliate him, chose for this purpose Easter-day, when M. de Marolles was about to receive the sacrament; and placing himself, as he knelt, beside him, "Sir," said he, "you are offended with me, and not without reason; but this is a time for mercy, and I entreat your pardon." "Under such circumstances," replied Marolles, "it is impossible for me to refuse it. Go, sir, I pardon you." Meeting him some days after, Marolles said to him, "Do you think, sir, that we are quit? You have cheated me out of a pardon which I had no intention of granting to you.”

XIX. M. DE BAUTRU.

M. de Bautru had been often pressed by the Queen to show her his wife. At last she told him plainly, that she was determined to be presented to her. Bautru, who had resisted as long as he possibly could, promised to bring her with him after dinner; "but, please your Majesty," added he, "she is terribly deaf." Ó, no matter," said the Queen, "I will talk loud." He immediately went home to prepare his wife for the interview, and warned her to speak as loud as possible, as the Queen would be unable otherwise to understand her. He brought her to the Louvre in the evening, and the Queen immediately opened the conference by bawling as loudly as possible, while Madame de Bautru answered her in the same tone. The King, who had been apprised of the whole by Bautru, laughed with all his heart at the scene. At last the Queen, who perceived it, said to Madame de Bautru, "Is it not the case that Bautru has made you believe that

I am deaf?" Madame de Bautru admitted that it was so. "Ah, the villain !" continued the Queen, " he told me the same of you.

XX. M. DE BAUTRU.

M. de Bautru told me one day, that during his embassy to Spain he went one day to visit the library in the Escurial, and saw at once, from the conversation which he had with the librarian, that he was an extremely ill-informed, and incompetent person for the situation. He was afterwards introduced to the King, with whom he talked of the beauties of the palace, and of the choice which he had made of a librarian. He told him he had immediately perceived that he was no common person, and that, in his opinion, his Majesty would do well to make him superintendant of his finances. "Why so?" said the King. "Sire," said Bautru,

as he has taken so little from your books, it is probable he may take as little from your finances."

XXI. M. DE BAUTRU.

Bautru disliked Angely, who was very fond of amusing himself at his expense. One day that Angely was at a party where he was playing the fool in every possible way, Bautru entered. As soon as Angely perceived him, "You are just come in time," said he, "to assist me. I was beginning to feel tired of being alone." It is inconceivable how much Bautru was annoyed by the remark.

XXII. INTENTIONAL ERRATA.

Besides the ordinary mistakes which take place

Brantome, in his Life of the Marechal de Strozzi, relates the same story of the wife of Brusquet and Catharine of Medici.

in printing, there are others which are sometimes purposely committed, in order to have an opportunity of introducing into the Errata, what could not have been permitted in the body of the work. In those countries, for instance, where the Inquisition exists, and particularly in Rome, the use of the word Fatum, or Fata, in any printed work, is forbidden. An author who wished to make use of the latter, adopted this scheme.-He printed the word, throughout his book, Facta ; and then, in the Errata, he placed a notice, For Facta, read Fata. A similar expedient was resorted to by Scarron. He had composed some verses, to which he had prefixed a dedication, in these words:" A Guillemette, chienne de ma soeur.' Sometime after, having quarrelled with his sister, just as he was preparing for the press a collection of his poems, he maliciously printed among the Errata of the Book, For "Chienne de ma soeur," read, "Ma chienne de soeur.'

"

XXIII. DOMESTIC ECONOMY.

Some courtiers were talking of their household affairs, and in particular of the wages they gave their servants. One of them observed that he gave his maître d'hotel a hundred pistoles; a second, that he allowed his six hundred; “And I,”

said one, 66 I go far beyond either of you, for I al

low mine four thousand francs per annum." At first the whole party were astonished at this exorbitant allowance. At last one of them thought of putting the question, "But, do you pay him ?” “Ob, no," said he.

XXIV. CARDINAL RICHELIEU.

A gentleman was once talking very loudly to the Prince de Guémene against the Cardinal de