to take it
out of his mouth, in compliance with a general regulation to that effect, when,
greatly to the astonishment of the passengers, the soldier addressed them in
these words: »Rauchen sie immerfort, verdamt sey der Preussische dienst;« that
is, »Smoke away; may the Prussian service be d-d!« Upon looking closer at the
man, he seemed plainly to be a Zigeuner, or gipsy, who took this method of
expressing his detestation of the duty imposed on him. When the risk he ran by
doing so is considered, it will be found to argue a deep degree of dislike which
could make him commit himself so unwarily. If he had been overheard by a
sergeant or corporal, the prügel would have been the slightest instrument of
punishment employed.
 
37 A similar story is told of the Duke of Vendome, who answered in this sort of
macaronic Latin the classical expostulations of a German convent against the
imposition of a contribution.
 
38 »Vox duoque Moerim
Jam fugit ipsa; lupi Moerim videre priores.« -
                                                            VIRGILII ix. ecloga.
 
The commentators add, in explanation of this passage, the opinion of Pliny: »The
being beheld by a wolf in Italy is accounted noxious, and is supposed to take
away the speech of a man, if these animals behold him ere he sees them.«
 
39 The adventure of Quentin at Liege may be thought overstrained, yet it is
extraordinary what slight circumstances will influence the public mind in a
moment of doubt and uncertainty. Most readers must remember, that, when the
Dutch were on the point of rising against the French yoke, their zeal for
liberation received a strong impulse from the landing of a person in a British
volunteer uniform, whose presence, though that of a private individual, was
received as a guarantee of succours from England.
 
40 »A sooth boord (true joke) is no boord,« says the Scot.
 
41 Fought by the insurgents of Liege against the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the
Bold, when Count of Charalois, in which the people of Liege were defeated with
great slaughter.
 
42 In assigning the present date to the murder of the Bishop of Liege, Louis de
Bourbon, history has been violated. It is true that the Bishop was made prisoner
by the insurgents of that city. It is also true that the report of the
insurrection came to Charles with a rumour that the Bishop was slain, which
excited his indignation against Louis, who was then in his power. But these
things happened in 1468, and the Bishop's murder did not take place till 1482.
In