The Commander-in-Chief nodded assent, and laughing heartily, left the little gentleman to take _his own time_ in removing. THE HUSSAR AND THE COMMISSARY; OR, “MY COUSIN,” THE MARQUIS. It is an even chance That bridegrooms, after they are fairly _groom’d_, May retrograde a little in the _dance_. BYRON. That “_a cobler should stick to his last_,” is a homely old saying, of infinite worth, were men to act upon the spirit which it inculcates; but, unfortunately, like many other wholesome things, it is too often rejected as unpalatable, if not neglected altogether. The danger of the infraction of this maxim, however, has been proved by men of every grade, from the highest to the lowest--from Cobler Buonaparte down to Cobler Cobbett--the one marched to Russia, and lost the world by it; the other trudged to Windsor, and gained but a laugh for his pains. Ambition is at the bottom of all this: that passion which killed alike the Roman Cato and the London Daw. The one slew himself that he might not witness his rival’s success; the other died of grief because he could not bear to see his _walk_ upon the stage usurped by an understrapper. Poor Daw had played for many years the fore leg of the elephant in Blue Beard with _éclat_--he was the _original_ leg; and it broke his heart to find himself thrown into the background, by being obliged to take the _hind_,[12] instead of his foremost character. But this is a digression; let us return to our adage--“A cobler should stick to his last,” and proceed to an illustration of it in an affair which happened at Lisbon, in 1813.