Ld. H.’s epigrams on Horsley[118] were lying upon my table; Ld. G. Leveson, in rummaging over the papers upon it, found them and took them. Ld. H. being jokingly angry, wrote this:-- Though in private my Muse in a profligate humour Her nakedness never withheld from your view, Yet she liked not that all who at tea in the room are Should have the same privilege too, and would you? The following he said would suit ----, an impotent husband, to his wife:-- As women wish to be who love their lords You wish to be, and ask why it delayed is. Because I’m not (what need of many words), As husbands ought to be that love their ladies! [Illustration: _Louis Gauffier, pinx._ _Emery Walker Ph.sc._ _Henrietta, third Countess of Bessborough_] [Sidenote: CHIRAC] Dumont mentioned a curious anecdote of Chirac, the celebrated physician of Louis XIV.,[119] told to him by Condorcet. At 84 years old he fell into a violent illness, which was his last. He lay for two days in a state of insensibility; he suddenly jumped up and sat upright in his bed, felt the pulse of his left hand with his right, shook his head, and in a loud voice cried, ‘On m’a appelé trop tard, le malade est mourant,’ He immediately fell back, verified his own prediction, and expired. He was the man roused in the night to attend a dying Cardinal, a person of very profligate life and infamous character. To hasten the physician, the messenger said, ‘Venez donc, il souffre comme un damné.’ ‘Comment déjà?’--a bitter sarcasm in one word. He was present at a dispute upon the Resurrection of Christ; some thought it was impossible that he should have arisen after death. Chirac only said, ‘Si il était mort de ma façon,’ implying without levity, his own incredulity. We have had a consultation with three lawyers, Piggott, Erskine, and Richards, upon the propriety of taking out a licence, or getting an Act of Parliament for my name, as it is particularly enjoined by my grandfather’s will that the person to whom the estate goes by descent should bear his name. There is some nicety in ye question, because, tho’ I am only just come into the profits of it, yet I was virtually possessed of it when that unhappy man compelled me to renounce it to him, and it may lead to an examination as to our signatures. This would be troublesome, as out of accommodation to him I signed two bonds without the name of Vassall. Ld. H. has only a marital dominion over it, and cannot be subject to forfeiture. Richards and Erskine think the title of honour supersedes all, and that no mischief has been yet incurred. It is not yet decided. Ld. H. went yesterday to Plummer’s. I wrote to Ld. Ossory, and begged him to accompany him--a proposal certain of pleasing, not only as it showed confidence and attention, but that it gratified his curiosity.