Antoine-Jean Gros

“ After a brief pause, However, Gros-Alain went up to it with an air of determination and gave it a kick.
This was quite enough; the appetite for destruction is never sated. René-Jean gave it a kick too, and Georgette gave it another, which landed her on the floor, but in a sitting position, of which she at once took advantage to throw herself on Saint Bartholomew. ”

“ On a torn visiting-card could still be read the name, Baron Gros. A little farther on they saw the corpse, and as they were afraid to touch a drowned man, they drew lots with straws to decide which of them should pull him out. “I feel it within me, it is a misfortune for me to be alone. One begins to be disgusted with one’s self, and then all is over,” he had once in his youth written to his mother with gloomy foreboding. Such was the end of a master every fibre of whose being was in revolt against Classicism, and who had so great a love for colour, truth, and life. ”

“ The mother was at the foot of the ladder, panting for breath, beside herself, intoxicated with all this surprise, suddenly exalted from hell into paradise; excess of joy bruises the heart in its way. She held out her arms, she received first Gros-Alain, then René-Jean, then Georgette, she covered them with kisses, then she burst out laughing and fell down in a faint. ”

“ An Englishman by birth and origin, but trained as a painter in France, where he had gone when fifteen years of age, he seems from many points of view one of the most gracious products of the Romantic movement in France, though at the same time he has qualities over which only the English had command at that period, and not the French. He entered Gros’s studio in France, which was then the favourite meeting-place of all the younger men of revolutionary tendencies, but repeated journeys to London did not allow him to forget Constable. ”

“ The Skeleton, taking his pipe from his mouth, said to the Gros-Boiteux:
"Do you know a slim young man named Germain, with blue eyes, brown hair, and the look of a noodle?"
"What! Is Germain here?" inquired the Gros-Boiteux, with surprise, hate, and anger in his looks.
"What, then, you know him?" said the Skeleton.
"Know him?" replied the Gros-Boiteux. "Why, my lads, I denounce him as a nose, and he must be punished!"
"Yes, yes!" replied the prisoners.
"Are you sure it was he who informed against you?" asked Frank; "suppose it was a mistake,—we mustn't ill-use a man who's innocent." ”

“ Baron Gros, on the 16th of April, was willing to recommend to the Greek Government to take an engagement to investigate the claims of M. Pacifico, in regard to the destruction of his Portuguese documents; and to pay him whatever might be the amount which, upon investigation, he might prove to be entitled to on that account; and to make a deposit of 150,000 drachmas as a pledge for the good faith with which they would execute that engagement. The only difference between Baron Gros and Mr. ”

“ This assertion, so far as Mr. Wyse is concerned, is positively untrue. It is totally and wholly untrue. He received no communication from Baron Gros on the 24th, and none earlier than the 2d of May, relative to the draft of the convention agreed upon in London. Whether Baron Gros received the information or not on the 24th by the Vauban, I leave to be settled between him and his Government. ”

“ But since Monsieur de Cros is so bold with the Sacred Memory of a Great King, for which he is yet so Impudent, as to profess a most profound Respect; What can a Subject expect, for whom he owns such a virulent Malice, and to whom he threatens such open Revenge.
The same vein of truth and sincerity shines through the whole Letter, and the Author’s Ingenuity is at the old pitch in what he pretends to rake out of the Memoirs concerning several Persons in great Employments ”

“ Those Persons that are never so little vers'd in the true Character of Monsieur de Cros, need not be informed that he promises mighty things, and performs just nothing at all. This unlucky shifting off his Resentments to a fitter Occasion, (tho 'tis certain he can never meet with a more proper one to unload himself of them) looks like making Exceptions to the Ground when a man is to meet his Adversary with his Sword in his Hand in the Field. ”

“ Can it be imagined that a Man of Monsieur de Cros's Christian Temper and Complexion will ever be accessary to any Man's Ruine, but especially to that of a great Minister of State, who can be reproached with nothing in the World, p. 12. but only a blind Obedience to the Will of the King his Master? No, no, he is far from pursuing the Destruction of any one, tho' never so great an Enemy to him; and therefore since his Memoirs will most infallibly ('tis his own Expression, ibid) produce so tragical an effect, there's no Question but he may be easily prevailed with to suppress them. ”

“ Wyse and Baron Gros differed would have been left open for future discussion; that coercive measures, as far as Greek commerce was concerned, would have been entirely suspended; the convention of London, of the 19th of April, would have arrived in time; but the Greek Government indeed would, by that convention, have had to pay probably a larger sum than the 180,000 drachmas. But what was Baron Gros’ answer to that? He said, on the 24th, “I have withdrawn from the negotiation, and I cannot therefore officially transmit to the Greek Government your proposal.” ”

“ The Major drew rein, and unstrapping his field-glass looked in the direction indicated by his young friend.
“You’re right, George!” he presently exclaimed; “they’re hartebeest. I say, Maurice, suppose we send the youngsters after them on their own account? They are quite old enough to go without ‘leading reins.’”
“Oh, do, father!” cried George eagerly.
“I’m sure you may trust us,” put in Tom.
“I am quite willing, Mat,” replied Mr Weston, smiling at the boys’ eagerness. “After all, there’s nothing like letting lads shift for themselves to make them self-reliant. ”

“ Wyse, Mr. Wyse should refer home for instructions; whereas all that I agreed to was, that such reference should be made in the case of irreconcilable difference between them, as to the amount of money to be paid by the Greek Government for those claims in regard to which we had not specified fixed sums; that is to say, for Mr. Finlay’s land and for M. Pacifico’s losses of furniture and goods at Athens. Baron Gros then proposed to withdraw the note, by which he announced officially the cessation of his functions, and he asked that his draft of arrangement, together with Mr. ”

“ The father of Robert Gorse was Ephraim, who spelled the name Goss, being of English extraction, a descendant of Sir John Goss, and a soldier of the Revolution who, having been wounded, perished in the rigors of the encampment at Valley Forge. Having acquired a common school education, he taught school during the winters, laying the foundation of a rugged constitution by working for his father on the farm during the summers, until having attained the age of manhood, he went to the theological seminary at Albany, joining the New York Conference in 1840. ”

“ To make good the Charge of Presumption with which Monsieur de Cros taxes the Author of the Memoirs, he cites a Passage, p. 6. which be found accidentally at the first opening of his Book; and assures his Noble Lord, that he doubts not but he shall be able in a short time to produce several others to the same Effect. The Negotiations which I had managed at the Hague, at Brussels, and at Aix la Chappelle, and saved Flanders out of the hands of France in 1668, made them believe that I had some Credit amongst the Spaniards, as well as in Holland. ”

“ There is no doubt but every man may make as bold with his own Reputation as he pleases, but then this gives him no Privilege to invade that of his Neighbour: and therefore Sir W. T. though he allows Monsieur de Cros the liberty to contradict himself as often as he in his great Wisdom sees fit, and easily forgives him that Offence; yet he desires him for the future not to commit the same violence upon others. ”

“ As Fleur drew him swiftly over the trail, ice-hard from much traveling, Jean decided that, if Antoine wished to fight out the winter in the Salmon country, for the sake of their old friendship he would overlook the half-breed’s weakness under Piquet’s influence and offer to take him. Dawn was wavering in the gray east when Marcel reached the silent camp. He called loudly to wake the sleeping man inside. ”

“ How consistent Writing in cold Blood and a hot Head is, I leave it to Monsieur de Cros to determine at his Leisure. In the mean time an inconsidering Man who sees such sort of Stuff so often repeated would imagine that our Letter-writer had all the Meekness of a Primitive Saint, and carried no such thing as a Gall about him; when 'tis plain, we may say the same thing of his Gall, what some Physicians have observed of the Liver in a vitiated Constitution, crescente Liene decrescit reliquum Corpus; and that his has increased at the Expence of the rest of his Body. ”

“ The Society of the Friends of the People was originally an after-dinner folly, extemporized at the house of a man who afterwards gained an earldom by denouncing it as seditious. Fox discountenanced it, though he did not directly condemn it; but Grey was overborne by the fierce Jacobinism of Lauderdale, and avowed himself the parliamentary mouthpiece of this dangerous agitation. But Pitt, strong in his position, cut the ground from under Grey’s feet by suppressing the agitation with a strong hand. ”

“ No doubt but Monsieur de Cros will write without Complaisance let him begin when he will; so far we readily believe him: But that he will ever be persuaded to renounce two of the dearest Qualities about him, Flattery and Passion, is somewhat hard to digest. 'Tis true he promises fine things all along, but is still so unkind to himself as to give us but very small hopes that he'll remember to be as good as his Word. And 'tis very natural for the censorious World not to regard what a Man promises, especially if he does not regard them himself. ”

“ And thus I have with much ado rid my hands of a great part of De Cros’s Rubbish, as far as it endeavours to bespatter Sir W. T. in his Morals and Intellectuals. It remains now I should observe a little what he says concerning his Fortunes, which seems to turn upon these two rusty Hinges, that make as ill a noise as all the rest; the obscurity from whence he was raised to all those great Employments, and his disgrace upon leaving them, which De Cros says was immediately after his Return from Nimeguen. ”

“ De Grost asked, with a quiet smile.
“Why not? Enemies have united before to-day against a common foe.”
De Grost looked across the palm court to where the two people who formed the subject of their discussion were sitting in a corner, both smoking, both sipping some red-colored liqueur.
“My dear Bernadine,” he said, “I am much too afraid of you to listen any more. You fancy because this man’s presence here was an entire surprise to you, and because you find me already on his track, that I know more than you do and that an alliance with me would be to your advantage. ”

“ Grosley was a Fellow of our Royal Society, and I greatly revere the authority of a F.R.S. His later years were occupied in the compilation of his Memoirs, including an account of what he did and heard in Holland, and he died in 1785. According to Grosley's account of what the Dutchman knew, Saint-Germain was the son of a princess who fled (obviously from Spain) to Bayonne, and of a Portuguese Jew dwelling in Bordeaux.
What fairy and fugitive princess can this be, whom not in vain the ardent Hebrew wooed? She was, she must have been, as Grosley saw, the heroine of Victor Hugo's Ruy Blas. ”

“ Further Grote, a practical man, a rationalist and an enthusiast for democracy, was the first to consider Greek political development with a sympathetic interest (see Greece: History, Ancient, section “Authorities”) , in opposition to the Tory attitude of John Gillies and Mitford, who had written under the influence of horror at the French Revolution. On the whole his work was done with impartiality, and more recent study has only confirmed his general conclusions. ”

“ He was preparing himself for the responsibilities of the high position and believed it well to make a study of America. His father, a younger son, had been a clergyman in Canada, and he, though with an Oxford training, knew the world outside of England better than the old home. His direct ancestor was Lord Grey of Groby, whose father, an earl of Stamford, had been a Parliamentary commander in the years of the Civil War, and in the century before that, a flower of the house had been the Lady Jane Grey, who had perished in her youth on the scaffold, a possible heir to the English crown. ”

“ Then, in the domain of history, Grote's great work, the work of a man of affairs, has done much, more perhaps than any other one book of the century, to invest his subject with a vivid, an almost modern interest for a world wider than the academic, and has done so all the more effectively just because his own antecedents were not academic. ”

“ That 'tis possible for a Man to write more justly and solidly than another (as for instance Monsieur de Cros (if you'll take his own Word for it) can write more justly and solidly than Sir W. T.) and yet after all, with these two Qualifications, is not capable of writing better than he that has neither of them. Writing justly and solidly are none of Monsieur de Cros's Talents ”