out loud, "Pardon, Pardon !" De Jars lifting up his head with the greatest tranquillity, said to the principal magistrate who attended on the scaffold, "Sir, I see through all your low and pitiful artifices; you expected to draw some advantage perhaps, from the fright into which the apprehension of immediate death might have thrown me. Another time, know better the persons with whom you have to do. Iam, thank God, at present as much master of myself as I ever was. I persist in saying, that M. de Châteauneuf is an honest man, and has always been a good subject to his sovereign."

LIEUTENANT COLONEL JOYCE.

When this insolent and daring officer (then only a cornet) demanded admittance to king Charles at Holmby House, he said to those who guarded him, that his business was to speak to the king. 66 From whom?" demanded they. "From myself," said Joyce; at which they all burst into a fit of laughter. "Nay," said he, “it is no laughing matter; I did not come hither to be advised by you. My errand is to the king, and speak to him I will and must." When he gained admittance to the king, his majesty asked him by whose appointment he came thither. Joyce returned no answer. "Let then the commissioners have their liberty," said his majesty, "and give me a sight of your instructions." Those," said Joyce, you shall see presently:" so drawing up the greatest and best part of his army into the inner court, as near as he could to the king, he said, “These, Sire, are my instructions." The king took a view of them, and finding them proper men, well mounted and armed, said with a smile to Joyce, "Your instructions, Sir, are in fair characters, and legible without spelling.”

JOSEPH HOUGH, BISHOP OF WORCESTER

Was as amiable and excellent in private, as he was upright and spirited in public life. His servant having one day let fall a very fine barometer belonging to him, which he had caused to be brought into his drawing-room to shew to his company, the glass broke, and the quicksilver flew about the floor; the bishop, turning round to his guests, said with a smile, "I protest I never saw the quicksilver so low in all my life."

He kept a very hospitable table, and was visited by all the gentry in his neighbourhood. A whimsical lady in a certain situation, with her husband, dining with him, was much pleased with a silver turenne which she saw at his table; and on going home, was, or pretended to be, ill in consequence of the extreme desire she had for it. Remonstrances, entreaties were in vain, and the poor husband, for quiet's sake, was obliged to go to the Bishop and tell him the situa tion of his wife. The Bishop gave him the turenne for his lady, and some time afterwards, when the lady had produced a chopping boy and was out of bed, the bishop sent a note to congratulate her ofher safe delivery; and to say, that he now in his turn longed for the turenne, which, however, should be always at her service, whenever she again longed for it.

AMBROSE SPINOLA.

This general passing through Paris, in 1604, had the honour of supping with Henry IV. Towards the end of the entertainment the king having asked him what particular plan of operations he meant to pursue in the next campaign; Spinola gave him a faithful relation of his intentions; telling him how and when he would begin, where he would construct a bridge

on the Scheldt, to lead over his army; and where he proposed to erect a small fort. In a word, he did not omnit the minutest circumstance. Henry, who was interested for the Dutch, immediately wrote to the Prince of Orange an account of all that he had heard, telling him that he must take every thing in a quite contrary sense, as it was not probable that Spinola, who was suspicious of him, would have disclosed his real designs. This able general, however, did every thing that he had said. He had been free with Henry IV. only because he was persuaded that he would not believe him. On this account that prince said, "Others deceive me by speaking falsehood, but Spinola has deceived me by telling the truth."

DR. WATTS.

It was so natural for Dr. Watts, when a child, to speak in rhyme, that even at the very time he wished to avoid it, he could not. His father was displeased at this propensity, and threatened to whip him if he did not leave off making verses. One day, when he was about to put his. threat in execution, the child burst into tears, and on his knees said,

"Pray, father, do some pity take,
And I will no more verses make."

DUKE OF CLARENCE.

During the Duke of Clarence's first trip to sea as a midshipman, on board the Prince George of 90 guns, Admiral Digby, he had some difference with Mr. Sturt, a brother midshipman, (now Member of Parliament for Bridport.) His highness bravely condescended to waive his dignity, and fight his opponent seaman's fashion, over a chest; but Mr. Sturt, being older in years, was the better man, and therefore declined a mode of contest which could not fail to be

to the disadvantage of his antagonist. His highness, struck with the generosity of Mr. Sturt, proffered his hand, and a reconciliation took place, which ripened into the closest friendship. His highness was heard afterwards repeatedly to declare, that had Sturt been a poor man's son, and continued in the navy, he would have solicited preferment for him in preference to himself.

The first actual service in which this prince was engaged, was when Lord Rodney captured the Spanish fleet, commanded by Langara. On this occasion, when the English admiral's boat was manned to bring Langara on board, His Royal Highness was the first stripped to his shirt, and at the oar; a circumstance which struck the Spanish Admiral so forcibly, that he involuntarily exclaimed, "That nation must be invincible, where kings' sons condescend to perform the office of common sailors."

REPORTERS.

When the tax on newspapers, proposed by Mr. Pitt in 1789, was under discussion in the House of Commons, Mr. Drake said that he disliked the tax, and would oppose it from a motive of gratitude. "The gentlemen concerned in writing for them, had been particularly kind to him: they had made him deliver many well-shapen speeches, though he was convinced he had never spoken so well in his whole life."

POWER OF ELOCUTION.

Hooke read some passages of his Roman History to Onslow, the speaker of the House of Commons, who piqued himself upon his reading, and begged him to give his opinion of the work. The speaker answered, as if in a passion, "I cannot tell what to think of it;

it may be nonsense for any thing I know, since your manner of reading has bewitched me."

The same must have been the case with the celebrated singer Senesino; for those who had no knowledge of the Italian language, nor the least relish for music, were fascinated with his recitations, his modulated tones, and his expressive gestures.

Mrs. Oldfield, whose excellent taste and discernment, and whose long acquaintance with the stage, rendered her well able to discriminate, used to say, "the best school she had ever known, was hearing Rowe read her part in his tragedies." And the late Isaac Hawkins Brown declared, that he never felt the charms of Milton, until he heard his exordium read by Sheridan.

Virgil pronounced his own verses with such an enticing sweetness and enchanting grace, that Julius Montanus, a poet who had often heard him, used to say, that "he could steal Virgil's verses, if he could steal his voice, expression, and gesture; for the same verses that sounded so rapturously when he read them, were not always excellent in the mouth of another."

Pliny the younger writing to a friend, who entreated him carefully to examine whether a certain poem was worth publishing, says, "that without opening it, he is sure it is beautiful from what he had heard him read, provided,” he adds, “ your pronunciation hath not imposed upon me; for you do, indeed, read with exquisite sweetness and art; yet I trust I am not so far led aside by my ears, that the charming cadence has entirely blunted the edge of my judgment.

ORATORICAL EXPERIMENT.

Bonaventure des Periers, in his works, relates the "A student at law, who studied following anecdote.