The elegant author of Telemachus has illustrated this subject, with
equal fancy and feeling, in the story of Alibée, Persan.
[15]
_Why great NAVARRE, &c_.
That amiable and accomplished monarch, Henry the Fourth of France,
made an excursion from his camp, during the long siege of Laon, to
dine at a house in the forest of Folambray; where he had often been
regaled, when a boy, with fruit, milk, and new cheese; and in
revisiting which he promised himself great pleasure.
Mém. de SULLY, ii. 381.
[16]
_When DIOCLETIAN’S self-corrected mind_
Diocletian retired into his native province, and there amused himself
with building, planting, and gardening. His answer to Maximian is
deservedly celebrated. He was solicited by that restless old man to
re-assume the reins of government, and the Imperial purple. He
rejected the temptation with a smile of pity, calmly observing, “that
if he could shew Maximian the cabbages which he had planted with his
own hands at Salona, he should no longer be urged to relinquish the
enjoyment of happiness for the pursuit of power.”
GIBBON, ii. 175.
[17]
_Say, when contentious CHARLES renounc’d a throne_,
When the emperor Charles V. had executed his memorable resolution,
and had set out for the monastery of St. Justus, he stopped a few
days at Ghent, says his historian, to indulge that tender and
pleasant melancholy, which arises in the mind of every man in the
decline of life, on visiting the place of his nativity, and viewing
the scenes and objects familiar to him in his early youth.
ROBERTSON, iv. 256.
[18]
_Then did his horse the homeward track descry_.
The memory of the horse forms the ground-work of a pleasing little
romance of the twelfth century, entitled, “Lai du Palefroi vair.”
See Fabliaux du XII Siecle.
Ariosto likewise introduces it in a passage full of truth and nature.
When Bayardo meets Angelica in the forest,
……..Va mansueto a la Donzella,
…………………………….
Ch’in Albracca il servìa già di sua mano.
ORLANDO FURIOSO, canto i. 75.
[19]
_Sweet bird! thy truth shall HARLEM’S walls attest_.
During the siege of Harlem, when that city was reduced to the last
extremity, and on the point of opening its gates to a base and
barbarous enemy, a design was formed to relieve it; and the
intelligence was conveyed to the citizens by a letter which was tied
under the wing of a pigeon.
THUANUS, lib. lv, c. 5.
The same messenger was employed at the siege of Mutina, as we are
informed by the elder Pliny.
Hist. Nat. x. 37.
[20]
_Hark! the bee, &c_.
This little animal, from the extreme convexity of her eye, cannot see
many inches before her.
NOTES ON THE SECOND PART.
[21]
_These still exist, &c_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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