The Archbishop of Genoa hearing an Abbé say that the earth moved round the sun, told him he was astonished at his impiety in flatly contradicting the Scriptures, which say, “Terra autem stat.”
Madame de Staël, daughter of M. Necker, being at a ball with a lady, daughter of the late M. de Guichen, Lieutenant-General of the Marine, for whom she was in mourning, kept tormenting the latter to dance. The lady replied that she could not dance while she was in mourning for her father; but Madame de Staël still importuned her, until she said: “Consider, madam, if you had had the misfortune to lose your father, could you think of dancing so soon?” “Oh!” returned the other, with a haughty air, “there is such a difference between fathers and fathers.” “True, madam,” replied her companion, “there is a great difference. My father served his king and his country during sixty years—yours in a fortnight has ruined both.”
Two Frenchmen of the lowest order, talking of the present condition of their country as they were crossing the Rhône, one of them said it was delightful to be equal to the nobility and gentry. “True,” replied the other, “it would have been pleasant to have been upon an equality with them while they were something; but now we have brought them down and ruined them, I do not see what we have gained by being equal to them.”
The Princess of Monaco stayed here a few days after the Prince’s departure, in the hope that the revolution aimed at by the aristocratic party would take place. When she received an express from the Prince, she wept bitterly while she read his letter, and then immediately ordered post-horses and set off, exclaiming: “Adieu, mon palais! adieu, mes honneurs! Je ne suis plus rien.”
The Corsicans having lately heard that they were to be restored to Genoa, represented to the Government that, rather than be given to their former masters, they begged that France would bestow them on the person to whom Louis XI. formerly gave the Genoese. During the reign of that monarch the Genoese sent Ambassadors to his Court, with instructions to place the republic under the protection of France. “Les Gênois,” said they, “se donnent à votre Majesté.” “Et moi,” answered the King, “je les donne au diable.”