Toward the latter part of his life, the count was reduced by misfortunes to a residence within the walls of the Fleet prison. Yet such was the confidence placed in his honor, that he was permitted to go where he pleased. He died in 1775, aged seventy, having bequeathed a “curious sword, a gold medal, and a curious picture, to a great personage”――probably the king of Prussia. [Illustration: JOHN BIGG, THE DINTON HERMIT.] This strange man lived in England, about one hundred and twenty years ago. He was a person of some wealth and learning, and was clerk to Simon Mayne, one of the judges who passed sentence of death on Charles I. After Charles II. was restored, he grew melancholy, perhaps on account of the turn public affairs had taken, and retiring to a cave in Dinton, he spent the remainder of his life there, as a hermit. He was often visited, and lived upon charity. It is curious that he never asked for anything but leather. When a piece was given to him, he would nail it to his clothes. Thus he became, at length, thatched over with pieces of leather. He kept three bottles hung to his girdle――one for strong beer, one for small beer, and one for milk. He was regarded as a great curiosity in his time. His shoes were preserved so late as 1712; they were enormous, consisting of near a thousand small bits of leather, each. After his death, the cave was dug over, in the expectation of finding money, or some relics of the hermit, but without success. He died in 1696. A lost Elephant found. A female elephant belonging to a gentleman at Calcutta, being ordered from the upper country to Chotygore, broke loose from the keeper, and was lost in the woods. The excuses which the keeper made were not admitted. It was supposed that he had sold the elephant; his wife and family, therefore, were sold for slaves, and he was himself condemned to work upon the roads. About twelve years after, this man was ordered into the country to assist in catching wild elephants. The keeper fancied he saw his long-lost elephant, in a group that was before him. He was determined to go up to it; nor could the strongest representations of the danger dissuade him from his purpose. When he approached the creature, she knew him, and giving him three salutes, by waving her trunk in the air, knelt down and received him on her back. She afterwards assisted in securing the other elephants, and likewise brought with her three young ones, which she had produced during her absence. The keeper recovered his character; and, as a recompense for his sufferings and intrepidity, had an annuity settled on him for life. This elephant was afterwards in the possession of Governor Hastings. * * * * *