“This Diamond Duke got away with eleven million thalers of the people’s money; he left one million thalers behind because he couldn’t get at them. And that notwithstanding, this murderer and thief was allowed to live the life of a distinguished prince in London and Paris. Wait till I get through with him and his namesakes in the royalty business.”
MARK ENJOYED OTHER HUMORISTS
Mark and I were walking through a rather disreputable little street, lined by private hotels, which leads from the Strand to the Playhouse, London, when he suddenly stopped and pointed to a bronze tablet on an old house about the middle of the block.
“Read,” he commanded, but my eyes refused to climb to the second story.
“Why this used to be the abode of the poet who has said:
“‘The English love Liberty as their wife,
The French as their Mistress,
The Germans as a Granny, long dead.’”
“Heine,” I ventured.
“Come to think of it, I am not absolutely sure, that Heine coined that political document,” admitted Mark, “but it is very much in the manner of an epigram he did write, I believe.