This Sainte-Beuve considered decisive of Talleyrand's participation in the discovery and execution of the prince, but it is not impossible that among his "groans" the remark in question was uttered. Napoleon said to O'Meara at St. Helena, "I have doubtless erred more or less in politics, but a crime I never committed;" and, while he did not mention Enghien, he said that Talleyrand advised him to do every thing he could against the Bourbons, "whom he detests." One remark attributed to Talleyrand in this connection, when Bonaparte expressed a desire to see the duke before his execution, was, "Don't compromise yourself with a Bourbon: the wine is drawn, it must be drunk (N'allez pas vous compromettre avec un Bourbon: le vin est tiré, il faut le boire). Napoleon stated to O'Meara that the Duc d'Enghien wrote him a letter offering him his services, which Talleyrand kept back until two days after the execution. This Lanfrey ("Life of Napoleon," II. 9) calls "a twofold and shameful calumny" against Talleyrand and the duke.

Mme. de Rémusat, who writes with as strong a friendship for Talleyrand as Lanfrey's hostility to Napoleon, denies that the former approved of the execution: "His enemies and Bonaparte himself have accused him of having advised the murder of the unfortunate prince; but Bonaparte and his enemies can be proved to be in error on this point. The known character of M. de Talleyrand hardly admits the possibility of such violence. He has told me more than once that Bonaparte had informed him, as well as the two consuls, of the arrest of the Duc d'Enghien, and of his unchanging determination: he added, that all three of them had seen the uselessness of words, and had kept silence.". ·Memoirs, i. 4. Mme. de Rémusat goes on to say, that, a few days after the first return of Louis XVIII., the Duke de Rovigo (Savary, Napoleon's aide-de-camp, and minister of police after Fouché), knowing her intimacy with Talleyrand, gave her an account of the arrest of Enghien, by which it seems that he had been mistaken for Pichegru by the conspirators in league with Georges, one of whom had given the information which led to the duke's arrest, and that when Bonaparte was told of the error he cried out, "Ah, the wretch! What has he made me do?" Lanfrey calls this the impudent story of

Savary."

It is not strange that the names of both Fouché and Talleyrand have been connected with the mot concerning the death of the Duc d'Enghien, when Napoleon found sufficient resemblance between them to say at St. Helena, "Fouché was the Talleyrand of the clubs, and Talleyrand was the Fouché of the drawingrooms."

DUC D'EPERNON.

[Louis de Nogaret de la Vallette, Duc d'Epernon, a noted French courtier; born in Languedoc, 1554; a favorite of Henry III., who appointed him high admiral of France; was in the carriage with Henry IV. when the latter was assassinated; died 1642.]

You are going up, I am coming down.

The credit of the duke, who held high office under more than one sovereign of France, waned before the growing power of Cardinal Richelieu. Their relative position during the early part of the reign of Louis XIII. was marked by the answer which the duke, who was one day descending the staircase of the palace of St. Germain, gave the cardinal, who was going up, and asked him the news: "You, sir, are going up, I am coming down" (Monsieur, vous montez, je descends). This is also told of Prince Galitzin, meeting his successor, Potemkin, the favorite of Catherine II. of Russia.

DESIDERIUS ERASMUS.

[A celebrated scholar and philosopher; born at Rotterdam, Oct. 28, 1465 or 1467; became a monk, 1486; secretary to the Bishop of Cambrai for five years, after which he studied in Paris and Italy; visited England, 1498; published an edition of the Greek Testament, 1516; satirized the Roman Church, but shrank from the radicalism of Luther; removed to Basle, where he published his " 'Colloquies," 1522; died July 12, 1536.]

A disadvantageous peace is better than the most just

war.

So Luther declared that "a wicked tyrant is better than a wicked war." Cromwell changed the opinion he once expressed, that, were Nero in power, it would be a duty to submit."

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Charles James Fox preferred "the hardest terms of peace to the most just war." Franklin wrote to Josiah Quincy, Sept. 11, 1773, "There never was a good war or a bad peace."

Erasmus pithily said of theological strife, "It is not the same to be a wise man and a theologian" (Non idem est theologum esse et sapere).

While he was studying in Paris, and was very poor, he wrote to a friend, “As soon as I get money I will buy, first, Greek books, and then clothes."

My heart is Catholic, but my stomach Lutheran.

Of his dislike of fish.

He said of Luther, "He was guilty of two great crimes, he has struck the Pope in his crown, and the monks in their belly."

He found on his visit to England that Cardinal Wolsey invited learned men to the entertainments at his palace of Hampton Court. A scholar himself, he esteemed the prelate the most honored by what was undoubtedly considered a condescension. "O happy cardinal," exclaimed Erasmus, "who can surround his table with such torches !"

Like charity, it covers a multitude of sins. -1 Pet. iv. 8. Of the hood (capuchon) from which the Capuchins, the mendicant friars of the Franciscan order, took their name.

Voltaire said of their costume, "It can only excite the contempt of the wise, edify good women, and frighten children." During a persecution of Protestants under Adrian VI., in 1523-24, Erasmus said, "Wherever the legate heaps fagots, it is as if he sowed heretics." Leo X. declared, "Erasmus injured us more by his wit than Luther by his anger" (Erasmus nobis plus nocuit jocando, quam Lutherus stomachando).

JOHN SCOTUS ERIGENA.

[A philosopher, born in Ireland; passed most of his life in France, where he was celebrated for classical learning and subtlety in scholastic disputation; sought refuge from church difficulties with Alfred the Great; died about 875 A.D.]

The table only.

When Charles the Bald of France, who sat opposite to him at dinner, asked Scotus what the difference was between a Scot and a sot (quid intersit inter Scotum et sotum), he replied, “The table only" (Mensa tantum).

LORD ERSKINE.

[Thomas Erskine, an eminent British advocate; born in Edinburgh, January, 1750; entered the navy, and afterwards purchased a commission in the army; studied law, and was called to the bar, 1778; defended the libel and treason cases; entered Parliament, 1783; lord chancellor, and raised to the peerage, 1806; retired, 1807; died November, 1823.]

You will be hanged if you do.

When Thelwall, on trial for high treason, during the examination of a witness for the prosecution, wrote on a slip of paper, and sent it over to Erskine, "I'll be hanged if I don't plead my own cause," his counsel replied in the same manner, "You will be hanged if you do." Thelwall then wrote, Then I'll be hanged if I do."

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He was told that one of his acquaintance had died worth two hundred thousand pounds. "That's a pretty sum to begin the next world with," remarked Erskine.

He had the following unique form of replying to begging letters: "Sir, I feel honored by your application, and I beg to subscribe [here the reader had to turn over the leaf] myself, your very obedient servant."

"That which is called firmness in a king," he once said, “is called obstinacy in a donkey."

The older a lamb grows, the more sheepish he be

comes.

When counsellor Lamb said he felt himself growing more and more timid as he grew older.

Sydney Smith once commented on his prevailing article of diet: "We have had so much mutton lately, that I dare not look a sheep in the face."

"When the hour comes when all things are revealed,” said

Erskine, "we shall know the reason-why shoes are made too tight."

His friend, Mr. Maylem, told him that his physician had ordered him not to bathe. "Oh! then you are malum prohibitum," replied Erskine. "My wife, however, does bathe," added his friend. "Worse still," was the advocate's quick rejoinder; "for she is malum in se!"

When asked, while lord chancellor, whether he would attend the ministerial whitebait dinner at Greenwich; "To be sure I will," he replied. "What would your fish dinner be without the Great Seal?"

The only use of an oath in parliamentary debate occurs in a very vigorous speech which Lord Erskine made in opposition to the Seditious Meetings Bill, in the session of 1795-96: "For my own part, I shall never cease to struggle in support of liberty. In no situation will I desert the cause. I was born a free man,

and, by G- I will never die a slave!"

CARDINAL D'ESTE.

[Hippolito d'Este, an Italian prelate, noted for his patronage of learning; brother of Alfonso, Duke of Modena; born 1479; died 1520.]

Se non è vero, è ben trovato.

Of the "Orlando Furioso," which Ariosto, who had been for a long time in his service, dedicated to him, Cardinal d'Este is reported to have said, "If it is not true, it is certainly well invented." The saying is a proverbial one, and has passed without translation into the literature of all nations. Büchmann can find no other authority, however, for the origin of the proverb than the anonymous author of "Grosse Leute, Kleine Schwächen," and thinks it may have been translated into Italian from the close of the first part of "Don Quixote," where Cervantes says that on the favorable reception of his work he will feel encouraged to seek after other adventures which may be quite as entertaining, though not so true (Bk. I. chap. lii.).

When asked how he could be satisfied with a small house that he had built, after having described such magnificent palaces in his "Orlando," Ariosto replied, "Words are cheaper than stones."