Peter the Great, as is well known, loved a bit of fun, and one day seeing a number of men swarming about the Law Courts at Westminster Hall, is said to have inquired who they were, and what they were about, and being informed that they were lawyers, he jocosely exclaimed, “Lawyers, why I had but four in my whole kingdom, and I design to hang two of them as soon as I get home.” Many amusing stories are told of the wit and humour of the ex-Polish sovereign, Stanislaus Leczinski. Walpole, in a letter to Mann, dated 1764, writes: “I love to tell you an anecdote of any of our old acquaintance, and I have now a delightful one relating, yet indirectly, to one of them. You know, to be sure, that Madame de Craon’s daughter, Madame de Boufflers, has the greatest power with King Stanislaus. Our old friend, the Princess de Craon, goes seldom to Luneville for this reason, not enduring to see her daughter on that throne which she so long filled with absolute empire. But Madame de Boufflers, who from his Majesty’s age cannot occupy _all_ the places in the palace that her mother filled, indemnifies herself with his Majesty’s Chancellor. One day the lively old monarch said, ‘Regardez quel joli petit pied, et la belle jambe! Mon Chancelier vous dira le reste!’ You know this is the form when a King of France says a few words to his Parliament, and then refers them to his Chancellor.” But Stanislaus, as Dr. Doran says, could be just as well as witty. Voltaire presented to him his history of Charles XII., expecting to be overwhelmed with compliments. Stanislaus, after reading the book, humiliated the philosopher by asking how he dared to present to him, an actor in the scenes described, a book in which veracity was outraged a thousand times over. It is related, too, of Charles XII., that at the battle of Narva, being told that the enemy were as three to one when compared with his own army, he replied, “I am glad to hear it, for then there will be enough to kill, enough to take prisoners, and enough to run away.” Christina of Sweden was noted for her wit and repartee, and often astonished persons by her piquant anecdotes. When she visited Fontainebleau, in 1656, in her half-male attire, it is said she appeared to some of the ladies like a pretty but rather forward boy, who was addicted to swearing, flung himself into an arm-chair, and disposed of his legs in a way which shocked “the not very scrupulous dames of the Court.” But these same ladies smothered Christina with kisses, which prompted her to say: “What a rage they have for kissing; I verily believe they take me for a gentleman!”