[77] Joseph Ferrari was an Italian by birth, but spent a great part of his time in France. He is best known by his "Philosophes Salariés," and died in Rome, 1876.—Editor.
[78] I believe there exists an English version of the play, entitled "A Son of the Soil." I am not certain of the title.—Editor.
[79] It was, in fact, an English officer who shouted, "Messieurs des gardes françaises, tirez;" to which the French replied, "Messieurs, nous ne tirons jamais les premiers; tirez vous mêmes." But it was not politeness that dictated the reply; it was the expression of the acknowledged and constantly inculcated doctrine that all infantry troops which fired the first were indubitably beaten. We find the doctrine clearly stated in the infantry instructions of 1672, and subsequently in the following order of Louis XIV. to his troops: "The soldier shall be taught not to fire the first, and to stand the fire of the enemy, seeing that an enemy who has fired is assuredly beaten when his adversary has his powder left." At the battle of Dettingen, consequently, two years before Fontenoy, the theory had been carried beyond the absurd by expressly forbidding the Gardes to fire, though they were raked down by the enemy's bullets. Maurice de Saxe makes it a point to praise the wisdom of a colonel who, in order to prevent his troops from firing, constantly made them shoulder their muskets.—Editor.
[80] "The receiver of the goods stolen from monarchies."—Editor.
[81] In olden times, every community, corporation, and guild in France elected annually a king;—even the mendicants, whose ruler took the title of King Pétaud, from the Latin peto, I ask. The latter's court, as a matter of course, was a perfect bear-garden, in which every one did as he liked, in which every one was as much sovereign as the titular one. The expression, "the Court of King Pétaud," became a synonym for everything that was disorderly, ridiculous, and disgusting.
"Oui, je sors de chez vous fort mal édifiée;
Dans toutes mes leçons j'y suis contrariée;
On n'y respecte rien, chacun y parle haut,
Et c'est tout justement la cour du roi Pétaud."
(Molière, "Tartuffe," Act i. Sc. 1.)—Editor.
[82] The first from "Les Mousquetaires de la Reine;" the second from "Charles VI."—Editor.
[83] Goethe, in his journey through France, noticed that the peasants who drove his carriage invariably refused to eat the soldiers' bread, which he found to his taste.—Editor.
[84] "Mettre du beurre dans ses épinards," means, figuratively, to increase one's comforts.—Editor.