Oh, let us not judge in passion, replied the monarch. For how can indignation decree justice? It becomes a prince of the nation to be free from anger. Is he not the representative and vicegerent of the Highest? Does not God express his anger in the tempest? inquired the queen. No, replied the king; he displays his benevolence even in the tempest. Ah, my beloved, man is too apt to form his idea of the Eternal from himself. But the queen’s anger increased, and she said, God also hates and punishes the delinquent, and he has not given the sword to kings without a purpose. I only ask that justice be done the criminal. His death has been announced to him. There is no alternative! Well, said the king, be it so! To-morrow! When, on the following day, the hour arrived, and the drums proclaimed the bloody spectacle: the queen arose with a splendid train, and rejoiced in her heart at the triumph of her indignation. For revenge is like a cooling cordial to the burning mind. The herald opened the lists, the delinquent stood there trembling, and the drums beat again. But behold, instead of a lion, came a white harmless lamb, and familiarly approached the trembling man. The drums ceased, and the sweet music of harps and flutes was heard; and the lamb cringed at the feet of the victim, and looked mildly in his face. Then the eyes of the queen rested on her spouse, and she blushed. But the king said, That look, my beloved, is an evidence to me, that I have exercised the right of retaliation. He who deceived you is deceived in return, and to you will be given the noble instead of the base! The blush on your cheeks, which appears to me more beautiful than the royal purple that adorns you, is also my reward. For your countenance assures me that I have acted like the representative and vicegerent of the Highest! Then the drums announced the termination of the spectacle, and the people cried, All hail, our king and queen! Bear and Child. Leopold, Duke of Lorraine, had a bear called Marco, of the sagacity and generosity of which we have the following remarkable instance. During the winter of 1709, a Savoyard boy, ready to perish with cold, in a barn in which he had been put by a woman with some more of his companions, thought proper to enter Marco’s hut, without reflecting on the danger he incurred in exposing himself to the mercy of the animal which occupied it. Marco, however, instead of doing any injury to the child, took him between his paws, and warmed him by pressing him to his breast, until the next morning, when he suffered him to depart and ramble about the city. The boy returned in the evening to the hut, and was received with the same affection. For several days he had no other retreat, and it added not a little to his joy to perceive that the bear regularly reserved a part of his food for him.