This little fellow
had in his hand a petition which he held up from a distance to the young
prince. The boy would know why this poor, little one was clothed all in
black. His governess answered that it was, no doubt, because his papa
was dead. He manifested a strong desire to talk with the child.--Madame
Montesquieu, who seized every occasion of developing his sensibility,
consented, and gave an order that he should be brought in with his mother.
She was a widow whose husband had been killed in the last campaign, and
finding herself without resources, had petitioned the emperor for a
pension. The young Napoleon took the petition and promised to deliver it
to his papa. The next morning he made up his ordinary packet of petitions,
but the one in which he took a particular interest he kept separate, and
after putting the mass into the hands of the emperor according to custom;
"Papa," said he, "here is the petition of a very unfortunate little boy;
you are the cause of his father's dying, and now he has nothing. Give him
a pension, I beg." Napoleon took up his son and embraced him tenderly,
gave him the pension, which he antedated, and caused the patent to be made
out in the course of the day.--_Translated from the French.--Westminster
Review._
* * * * *
AN ESKDALE ANECDOTE.
_Extract of a Letter from the Ettrick Shepherd._
I chanced to be on a weeks' visit to a kind friend, a farmer in
Eskdale-muir, who thought meet to have a party every day at dinner, and
mostly the same party.
Pages:
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56