115
The night before the Comte de Lavalette was to be executed, his wife Émilie came to visit him with a proposal that left him speechless.
Antoine, Comte de Lavalette, had been Napoleon’s Adjutant, and his wife Émilie had been maid of honour to Josephine. After Napoleon’s fall, Antoine was arrested by the Ultra-Royalists and on November 21st, 1815, sentenced to death. He realised that hopes of a reprieve were an illusion when a female warder burst into his room weeping and kissed his Legion d’Honneur medal. Émilie had already reached the same melancholy conclusion.
Posted October 14 2023
116
The fandango is Spain’s most alluring national dance, and the story goes that even the most solemn clergyman could not resist it.
Jean-François de Bourgoing was secretary to King Louis XVI’s legation to Spain from 1777 to 1786, and served as Ambassador in 1792-93. The French Revolutionary government mistrusted him, but his diplomatic career revived under Napoleon. In 1807, he brought out a fourth edition of his popular study of modern-day Spain, first published ten years earlier, which included this account of the fandango.
Posted October 13 2023
117
In the family of Samuel Pepys, the Feast of the Epiphany was kept with music, cake and quaint traditions.
Twelfth Day, the Feast of the Epiphany, is kept on January 6th each year and marks the end of the Christmas season. Samuel Pepys, never one to miss the opportunity for a glass of good cheer and some venison pasty, took care to make a family party of it — even if his duties as paymaster for the Treasury meant a slow start to the festivities.
Posted October 5 2023
118
Once railway engineer Thomas Brassey made a promise he kept it — even if he wasn’t aware that he’d made one.
Railways came to Belgium when the Brussels to Mechelen line opened on May 5th, 1835. In 1848, the first stage of the Sambre and Meuse line opened at Charleroi, with British engineers in charge of construction, and six years later it reached Vireux. At Olloy-sur-Viroin the company had erected a smithy at no small expense, and employed a local blacksmith. One day, Thomas Brassey arrived to inspect progress on the line.
Posted October 4 2023
119
Clever people have realised that it is easier to get people on your side by mockery than by persuasion.
William Paley complained that critics of Christianity no longer troubled themselves with civilised debate. Instead, they scattered sniggering remarks throughout popular and academic literature, in the hope of laughing the public into atheism; for their knowledge of human nature had taught them that scorn is far more persuasive than argument.
Posted October 3 2023
120
John of Gaunt tries to persuade his son Henry that banishment from England isn’t such a bad thing, if you think about in the right way.
In 1398, King Richard II, unpopular throughout his kingdom and fearing for his throne, ordered his cousin and rival Henry Bolingbroke to leave the country, together with Henry’s father John of Gaunt. As Shakespeare tells the tale, John did his best to bear Henry up under the blow, encouraging him to rock himself with fairy tales into a doze of happy acceptance.
Posted October 2 2023