I will now conclude by giving my readers the history of the crest which I have placed above my name upon the front page. We (I mean the Jouberts) do not claim to descend from the “Crusaders,” and although we must have had some lineal connections with the first inhabitants of the Garden of Eden, the line cannot be traced quite so far.
I suppose that we must have been lost in the “crowd” for many centuries, and it is very evident to me that until the sixteenth century the name has no record. In the year 1550, however, Dr. Laurence Joubert was appointed Court Physician to Henry III., and at the death of Rondelet in 1562 he was made Regius Professor of Physic at Montpellier, where he died in 1582.
Having rendered eminent services to King Henry III., the monarch, by letters patent, authorised his favourite physician to assume the Gallic cock rampant, with Esculapius’ mythological serpent at its feet—the motto, “semper vigilans” being, I think, a most suitable one for a “medico.”
The old bird has never been of much service to our ancestor’s descendants. Still, we have always adhered to it, as an emblem of old Gaul. Even the Imperial eagle has not deterred us from our allegiance to the Gallic cock, and as years have rolled on, “semper vigilans” has been our motto. I trust that my sons will never forget its meaning, which in the vulgar tongue may be translated into “Be always wide awake,” or, better still, “Keep your weather eye open”—a maxim I have always endeavoured to follow, and I think verily that it is owing to this that I have got out of the various “shavings and scrapes” I have narrated in the foregoing pages.
EPILOGUE.
My brother “Savages” have induced me to look up my diaries and publish this book.
If it proves an infliction, the blame is theirs.
It has afforded me an opportunity to record gratefully the many kindnesses I have received during my travels—more especially the genial hospitality of the “Savage Club.”
One of the infirmities of age is garrulity. I have endeavoured to avoid it.