Tales and Novels — Volume 01: Moral TalesEdgeworth, Maria
General
Tales and Novels — Volume 01: Moral Tales
Edgeworth, Maria
Fiction
_Answer_.--"I was present when Sophia Mansfeld, the woman by whom the
vase was designed, told the count that she did not know how to write,
and that she would be obliged to him if he would write the inscription
himself on it. The vase at this time had not been put into the furnace.
It was in what we call biscuit. The Count Laniska took a proper tool,
and said that he would write the inscription as she desired. I saw
him writing on the bottom of the vase for some minutes. I heard him
afterward call to one of the workmen, and desire that he would put the
vase into the furnace: the workman accordingly carried it into the next
room to the furnace, as I believe."
_Q_.--"Did you see the inscription on the vase after it was taken out of
the furnace? and was the word 'tyrant' then on it?"
_Answer_.--"I did not see the vase immediately upon its being taken out
of the furnace; but I saw it about an hour afterward. At that time I
read the inscription: the word 'tyrant' was not then visible on the
vase; the place where it now appears was blue. I carried it myself,
along with some others, to the king's palace at Sans Souci. The night of
the first day of this month his majesty sent for me, and showed me the
word _tyrant_ on the vase: I had never seen it there till then. It
could not have been written after the china was baked: it must have been
written whilst the biscuit was soft; and it must have been covered
over with the blue paint after the vase was taken out of the furnace. I
believe the word was written by Count Laniska, because I saw nobody
else write upon the vase but him; because the word exactly resembles the
handwriting of the rest of the inscription; and because I, upon a former
occasion, heard the count make use of that very word in speaking of
Frederick the Great."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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