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Henry W. Wolff. Odd Bits of History: Being Short Chapters Intended to Fill Some Blanks
Odd Bits of History: Being Short Chapters Intended to Fill Some Blanks
Table of Contents
PREFACE
II.—RICHARD DE LA POLE, "WHITE ROSE."[4]
III.—THE EARLY ANCESTORS OF OUR QUEEN.[5]
IV.—ABOUT A PORTRAIT AT WINDSOR.[6]
V.—THE REMNANT OF A GREAT RACE.[8]
VI.—VOLTAIRE AND KING STANISLAS.[9]
VII.—THE PRINCE CONSORT'S UNIVERSITY DAYS.[10]
VIII.—SOMETHING ABOUT BEER.[12]
Отрывок из книги
Henry W. Wolff
Published by Good Press, 2019
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It was in the green bosquets of those Pâquis, his favourite lounging-place, that James first discovered his human jewel. To house her suitably, he took—at somebody else's cost—a cottage on the brow of the hill, where the view is delightful and the air magnificent. You can still approximately trace the site, high up in the Rue de l'Horloge, above the Rue St. Jean, a little below the neglected terrace in the Rue Chavée—which is well worth visiting for its prospect. As the house stood with its back to the hill and facing only the open space, there must have been absolute privacy. But, after moving down to the Lower Town, James found the ascent by those Quatre-vingt Degrés—which Oudinot rode up on horseback—a trifle laborious. The steps lead almost straight up from his house to the cottage, describing just enough of an angle to take in the humble building, now marked by a tablet, in which Marshal Oudinot was born. A more convenient arrangement could scarcely have been desired. But the steps were sadly "sales et délabrés." Not to inconvenience James in his amours, the town council readily voted the requisite sum for putting them into proper repair.
When September came on, James found the air on the castle-hill "trop vif." Although his mother generally reports that "il se porte bien," it is to be feared that his constitution was none of the strongest. We read in one of D'Audriffet's despatches, "que sa santé estoit toujours fort delicate." He has had a "fluxion" in the eye. He has "weak lungs." "He is evidently very poorly," writes D'Audriffet to Louis. He finds himself "alteré par l'intemperie du tems." He takes the waters of Plombières four times "for his health," and wants to take those of Aix-la-Chapelle. He talks of going to a warmer climate—Spain or Italy, or, more specifically, Venice. But he can now obtain no fresh passport from the Emperor. Then he goes to have a look at Saint Mihiel, likewise in the Barrois, only a few miles from Koeurs, in which another Prince of Wales, young Edward—the same whom Edward IV. meanly struck with his gauntlet, and Richard of Gloucester despatched with a stab, to stop his "sprawling"—spent his young years of exile in company with his mother, Queen Margaret, from 1464 to 1471. But he does not like the idea of living in the Benedictine Abbey. So the Duke orders the town council to get ready once more M. Marchal's convenient house below, to which the Chevalier insists that a second house adjoining shall be added, belonging to M. de Romécourt, besides a portion of one belonging to M. Lepaige, with a kitchen specially built, and a "gardemanger," a new door, and sundry other conveniences, to say nothing of the hiring of further accommodation for his horses, his kennel, his gens de vénerie, his guards, some of his suite—all of whom and all of which he wants very near him, and all of which consequently, costs the town a good deal of money. M. de Romécourt's house is a complete match to M. Marchal's, but smaller, bringing up the frontage to thirteen windows.
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