"rous titles, cannot be attacked; my claim " is a maxim of public law. I say to your "Controler-Generals, Either restore me

66

my property, or pay me its just va "lue;' and since they refuse me that jus"tice which I cannot doubt your Majesty "wishes me to have, I most respectfully in"treat, that I may be allowed to demand it "before the tribunals authorised to give it to "C me. This is not an affair which has the "least relation to my government; it is an abuse of authority by those who are in place."

56. DISTINCTION BETWEEN

"6 FIERTÉ."

"ORGUEIL" AND'

The Countess Amelia de Boufflers was frequently teizing an English lady who' lived in the house of her mother-in-law; and the other sometimes answered rather sharply. "Mademoiselle, vous êtes bien orgueil"leuse," said the Countess to her one day.

"Vous vous trompez, Madame," replied the English lady, "Je ne suis que fière.""Quelle difference faites-vous entre les "deux ?" asked the Countess.-"Madame,'

"l'orgueil est offensif, et la fierté est défen "sive." This distinction, which is so just, is wanting in the Synonimy of the Abbé Gi

rard.

57. ANOTHER, made by the PRINCE DE CONTI TO DIDEROT.

I heard the late Prince de Conti make an observation equally just to a member of the French Academy; no less than the celebrated Diderot. I had brought him to the Prince, whom he desired to thank in person for a pension which he had granted him. The Prince received us in bed. Two chairs were placed at the bed-side; but, in two minutes, the man of letters found himself so much at his ease with His Highness, that he seated himself upon the bed, discussing the political affairs which then (in 1776) occupied the Parliament of Paris. The Prince then acted a very distinguished part in politics, and warmly opposed the measures of the King's ministers. "Monseigneur," said Diderot, il paroît que vous êtes bien "entété" (he meant to praise him). "Stop, "M. Diderot," said the Prince quickly;

En

"that word does not belong to me. "tété veut dire, opiniâtre pour le mal; et

66

ferme, est opiniâtre pour le bien. N'est"ce pas ferme, que vous vouliez dire?" Diderot, without the least embarrassment, con. fessed that the distinction was just. We went afterwards to the Countess de Boufflers', with whom it was not easy to be familiar: but Diderot, who did not concern himself about such things, was scarcely seated at her side, when as he was talking, he put his hand upon her knees, to the great astonishment of that lady, who asked him if he had done so with the Empress of Russia, to whom he had also been introduced to return thanks for a pension. He replied, very plainly, "yes, it was his way."

58. SINGULAR APOLOGY OF THE KING OF PRUS SIA TO HIS NEPHEW.

While Frederic the Great, King of Prus-· sia, was dying with the dropsy, as the disor der continued for a long time, he one day : said to his successor, "I beg your pardon, nephew, for making you wait so long."

59. REPARTEE OF CARDINAL DE LUYNES TO LOUIS XV.

Louis XV. frequently talked to his courtiers in a manner extremely disagreeable to them, without intending to give them pain. One day, when Cardinal de Luynes was paying his respects to him, "Cardinal," said the King to him, "your great grand"father died of an apoplexy; your father, "and your uncle, died of an apoplexy; and 66 you look as if you would one day die of an "apoplectic stroke."-" Sire," answered the Cardinal," fortunately for us, we do not "live in the times when Kings were pro"phets."

60. UNFEELINGNESS OF LOUIS XV. TO M. DE HAUTEFORT.

M. de Hautefort having recovered from a long illness, during which Louis XV. had sent often to inquire after him, was most anxious to go and thank him. When he used the word convalescence, the King, who perceived that he was still pale and wan, exclaimed, "A pretty sort of convalescence!" and afterwards hearing him

cough, "M. de Hautefort," said he, "that's

a church-yard cough!" I have, in another work, related several traits of Louis XV. of the same kind, which I omit here.

61. THE PREtender in LoNDON.

In a conversation which the King of Sweden held with the Pretender at Florence, on the 1st of December, 1783, the latter told him that, in the month of September, 1750, he was in London with Colonel Brett. The first place where he landed was at the Tower of London. He examined the outside of it, and found that it was very easy to break down the door with a petard. He then went to a lodging in Pall-Mall, where the same evening more than fifty of his partisans assembled, among whom he mentioned the Duke of B -t and Lord W-d; and he assured the King of Sweden, that if he had seen the probability of assembling 4,000 men, he would have put himself at their head. The King of Sweden repeated the conversation, the same day, to Sir Horace Mann, from whom I had it. Mr. Holker, an Englishman, told me, that he had attend