Ancient, Curious, and Famous WillsHarris, Virgil M. (Virgil McClure)
History
Ancient, Curious, and Famous Wills
Harris, Virgil M. (Virgil McClure)
Wills
This very interesting and remarkable will is extremely rare to find,
although the copy from which we take it was in print, having been
preserved, among many other curious papers, by M. Bourée, of Châtillon;
docketed along with it was a collection of isolated papers, all more or
less _piquants_, relating to the famous and formidable cardinal, and
consisting of satirical verses, epitaphs, lampoons, parasitical
flatteries, apologies, etc. There is also a rough copy of a _billet
d’enterrement_, apparently drawn up with the intention of being
distributed to the court to invite them to the funeral.
Our readers will no doubt peruse with curiosity the last wishes of this
pompous and magnificent minister, who contrived to rehabilitate himself
after an early disgrace, to maintain his proud supremacy to the last,
and to die bequeathing gifts to his sovereign and master.
Of his luxury and extravagance, his nepotism so costly to the country,
his assumption of power, and the art with which he knew how to make
himself obeyed and feared by all classes and conditions of men, history
amply informs us in details scarcely credible at the present day; and
that it was he who by his despotism and tyranny laid the foundations of
that terrible revolution, which blasted the face of the country and cast
its fatal blight, more or less fatally, over the whole civilized world,
none are likely to forget.
If we wanted an instance of pomp, unexampled even in the history of the
Roman Empire, of uncompromising consideration as claimed by and accorded
to this _parvenu_ prince, whose personal expenses are estimated at more
than a thousand crowns a day--considerably more than the monarch he
served had at his private disposal--we may find it in the narrative of
his (happily) last journey from Tarascon to Paris. It is to be regretted
the famous Tarasque had not broken loose that day and devoured him
before he started on his egotistical expedition.
Pronouncing himself unable to bear the fatigue of saddle, carriage, or
litter, he ordered a room to be built of light boards covered with
crimson satin damask, which was to be furnished with a bed, two chairs,
and a table for his secretary; this movable house was hoisted on the
shoulders of eighteen of the cardinal’s guards, to be relieved at stated
distances; they were to walk on bareheaded, no matter what weather, and
it was during the month of August, or about the hottest season in
France.
When this singular _cortège_--for the cardinal was followed by carriages
containing his numerous suite--arrived at the towns he had to pass
through, they found the walls and gates already demolished and cleared
away by the direction of a vanguard of attendants sent on before to see
that room was made for his Eminence to pass without delay or
interruption.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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