Richelieu one day boasted among his courtiers that out of any four indifferent words he could extract matter to send any one to a dungeon. One of his attendants immediately wrote upon a card: "One and two make three.." "Three make only One!" exclaimed the cardinal. "To the Bastile with him. It is a blasphemy against our Holy Trinity."
Curious Parallel.
The story of Alnaschar, which is in the "Arabian Nights," tells how one Alnaschar had invested all his money in a basket of glassware, which he calculated to sell at a profit, and got into a day-dream of a splendid future.
Out of the profits of his glass he was to rise into the position of a merchant-prince, with the Grand Vizier's daughter for his wife. Offended, in this day-dream, with the lady, he fancied that he would spurn her before forgiving her, and kicked out his foot, which broke all his glass and left him beggared.
Rabelais makes Echepron, an old soldier, tell the advisers of King Picrochole, who wanted him to go to war, that a shoemaker bought a ha'p'orth of milk. This he intended to make into butter, and buy a cow with the money thus obtained. In due time the cow would have a calf; this calf would be sold, and so on money would pile up, until, having become a nabob, he should wed a princess. Only, just at this crisis, the jug fell, the milk was lost, and the dreamer sneaked, supperless, to bed.
Earliest Clocks.
The first clock which appeared in Europe was probably that which Eginhard (Secretary to Charlemagne) describes as sent to his royal master by Abdallah, King of Persia. "A horologe of brass, wonderfully constructed, for the course of the twelve hours, while as many little brazen balls dropped upon bells underneath, and sounded each other." The Venetians had clocks in 872, and sent a specimen of them that year to Constantinople.
Famous Astronomical Clock.
This clock, in the Strasburg Cathedral, was invented by Isaac Habrecht, a Jewish astrologer, in 1439. He called it the "Clock of the Three Sages," because once in every hour the figures of the Three Kings of Orient came out from a niche in its side, and made a reverential bow before an image of the Virgin Mary, seated just above the dial-plate, on the front of the clock. It is built of dark wood, gilded and carved, and is sixty feet high. In shape it is somewhat similar to a church, with a tower on either side of the entrance; and these towers of the clock are encircled by spiral staircases, which are used when repairs are necessary. When Isaac Habrecht invented this wonderful clock, he meant it to run forever, always displaying to the good people of Strasburg the days of the month, phases of the sun and moon, and other celestial phenomena; and while he lived it worked admirably, but when he had been dead awhile, the clock stopped; and as nobody else understood its machinery, it had quite a vacation, which lasted until 1681, when it was repaired and improved.