Western Europe Books

The Queen having been robbed of her purse as she was passing from the Tuileries to the Feuillans, requested my sister to lend her twenty-five louis. [On being interrogated the Queen declared that these five and twenty louis had been lent to her by my sister; this formed a pretence for arresting her and me, and led to her death.—MADAME CAMPAN.] I spent part of the day at the Feuillans, and her Majesty... more...

FOREWORD In publishing these collected articles in book form (the result of my visits to Flanders, the battlefields of France and divers of the great munition centres), some of which have already appeared in the press both in England and America, I do so with a certain amount of diffidence, because of their so many imperfections and of their inadequacy of expression. But what man, especially in these... more...

CHAPTER I. The Reason for Writing These Memoirs.—Gabrielle d'Estrees. The reign of the King who now so happily and so gloriously rules over France will one day exercise the talent of the most skilful historians. But these men of genius, deprived of the advantage of seeing the great monarch whose portrait they fain would draw, will search everywhere among the souvenirs of contemporaries and base... more...

Madame sent for me yesterday evening, at seven o'clock, to read something to her; the ladies who were intimate with her were at Paris, and M. de Gontaut ill. "The King," said she, "will stay late at the Council this evening; they are occupied with the affairs of the Parliament again." She bade me leave off reading, and I was going to quit the room, but she called out,... more...

CHAPTER I. The Prince de Mont-Beliard.—He Agrees to the Propositions Made Him.—TheKing's Note.—Diplomacy of the Chancellor of England.—Letter from theMarquis de Montespan.—The Duchy in the Air.—The Domain of Navarre,Belonging to the Prince de Bouillon, Promised to the Marquise. There was but a small company this year at the Waters of Bourbonne,—to begin with, at any rate; for... more...

PREFACE Though no excuse can be needed for including in our Extra Series a reprint of a unique Caxton on a most interesting subject, yet this Book of Curtesye from Hill's MS. was at first intended for our original series, I having forgotten lately that Caxton had written to 'lytyl Iohn,' though some months back I had entered the old printer's book for my second collection of Manners... more...

CHAPTER I. The man who, having witnessed and enjoyed the earliest performance of Thespis and his company, followed the travelling theatre of that primeval actor and manager, and attended a second and a third histrionic exhibition, has good claim to be accounted the first playgoer. For recurrence is involved in playgoing, until something of a habit is constituted. And usually, we may note, the playgoer... more...

The King Takes Luxembourg Because It Is His Will.—Devastation of theElectorate of Treves.—The Marquis de Louvois.—His Portrait.—TheMarvels Which He Worked.—The Le Tellier and the Mortemart.—The KingDestines De Mortemart to a Colbert.—How One Manages Not to Bow.—TheDragonades.—A Necessary Man.—Money Makes Fat.—Meudon.—The Horoscope. This journey to Flanders did not keep the King... more...

A Dirge Of Victory (Sonnet) Lift not thy trumpet, Victory, to the sky,  Nor through battalions nor by batteries blow,  But over hollows full of old wire go,Where among dregs of war the long-dead lieWith wasted iron that the guns passed by.  When they went eastwards like a tide at flow;  There blow thy trumpet that the dead may know,Who waited for thy coming, Victory. It is not we that have... more...

It has been my lot to have lived through the greater part of one of the most eventful centuries of England's history, and I have been thrown amongst most of the remarkable men of my day; whether soldiers, statesman, men of letters, theatrical people, or those whose birth and fortune—rather, perhaps, than their virtues or talents—have caused them to be conspicuous in society at home or abroad.... more...