After supper he conversed for half an hour with Mlle. Baptistine and
Madame Magloire; then he returned to his room and began writing again,
either on loose leaves or on the margin of some folio. He was well
read, and a bit of a _savant_, and has left five or six curious MSS.
on theological subjects, among others a dissertation on the verse from
Genesis, "In the beginning the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters." He compared this verse with three texts,--the Arabic, which
says, "The winds of God breathed;" Flavius Josephus, who said, "A wind
from on high fell upon the earth;" and lastly the Chaldaic of Onkelos,
"A wind coming from God breathed on the face of the waters." In another
dissertation he examines the works of Hugo, Bishop of Ptolemaïs,
great-grand-uncle of him who writes this book, and he proves that to
this bishop must be attributed the various opuscules published in the
last century under the pseudonym of Barleycourt. At times, in the midst
of his reading, no matter what book he held in his hands, he would
suddenly fall into a deep meditation, from which he only emerged to
write a few lines on the pages of the book. These lines have frequently
no connection with the book that contains them. We have before us a
note written by him on the margin of a quarto entitled, "Correspondence
of Lord Germain with Generals Clinton and Cornwallis, and the Admirals
of the American Station. Versailles, Prinçot; and Paris, Pissot, Quai
des Augustins." Here is the note.
"O thou who art! Ecclesiastes calls you Omnipotence; the Maccabees call
you Creator; the Epistle to the Ephesians calls you Liberty; Baruch
calls you Immensity; the Psalms call you Wisdom and Truth; St. John
calls you Light; the Book of Kings calls you Lord; Exodus calls you
Providence; Leviticus, Holiness; Esdras, Justice; Creation calls you
God; man calls you the Father; but Solomon calls you Mercy, and that is
the fairest of all your names."
About nine o'clock the two females withdrew and went up to their
bed-rooms on the first floor, leaving him alone till morning on the
ground floor. Here it is necessary that we should give an exact idea of
the Bishop's residence.
CHAPTER VI.
BY WHOM THE HOUSE WAS GUARDED.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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