Bernard Le Bouyer de Chamfort

“ Memoir of Henry Compton.
[203]
RAY what is this Permissive Bill,
That some folks rave about?
I can't with all my pains and skill,
Its meaning quite make out?"
O! it's a little simple Bill,
That seeks to pass incog.,
To permit ME—to prevent YOU—
From having a glass of grog.
Lord Neaves, Songs and Verses.
UELQUE mal qu'un homme puisse penser des femmes, il n'y a pas de femme qui n'en pense encore plus mal que lui.
Chamfort, Maximes.
ITH thy fogs, all so thick and so yellow,
The most approved tint for ennui,
Oh, when shall a man see thy fellow,
November, for felo-de-se? ”

“ Maupertuis had found no difficulty in showing that life held more pain than pleasure, while Chamfort's conclusions on the same subject were as luminous as they were gloomy; and yet it is difficult to say that the gall with which these authors dashed their pages served otherwise than as a condiment to fresher and less flavored works. Baudelaire, the poet of boredom, praying for a new vice that should wrest life into some semblance of reality, was in consequence almost a novelty, and not a perfectly satisfactory one at that. ”

“ One of our young men also determined to go with these savages, who are Charioquois, living at a distance of some one hundred and fifty leagues from the fall. He went with the brother of Savignon, one of the captains, who promised me to show him all that could be seen. Bouyer's man went with the above-mentioned Iroquet, an Algonquin, who lives some eighty leagues from the fall. ”

“ And as Boyd merely looked at him with contempt, he stepped nearer, bent suddenly, and jerked Boyd to his feet.
"You Yankee dog!" he said; "Stand up when your betters stand!"
Boyd reddened to his temples.
"Murderer!" he said. "Does a gentleman stand in the presence of the Cherry Valley butcher?" And he seated himself again on his log.
Butler's visage became deathly, and for a full minute he stood there in silence. Suddenly he turned, nodded to Hiokatoo, pointed at Boyd, then at Parker. Both prisoners rose as a yell of ferocious joy split the air from the Senecas. ”

“ Bower is the feller that come down the Rice River just a day or so ahead of you. He had a scow load of supplies for the surveying party in the cañon down there. Soon as he delivered it, he was going back light in a canoe. I looked for him before this, but of course, his season's work being done, he's nachelly takin' things easy.”
“Do you think he'll have room for me?” asked Ann.
“Sure! He's got a twenty-foot dugout, and only a breed boy to help him paddle. A good tripper. Bower is, too—one of the best. You'll be safe with him. A good-hearted man, too—not like Chako.” ”

“ In 1726, if not before, he was journeyman to William Bowyer [q. v.] , the 'learned' printer, and he ever acknowledged the kindness with which he had been treated, in proof of which he left by his will ten guineas to Bowyer for a mourning wig. ”

“ The people one sees in these places are very characteristic of the Bowery. Many of them are what the police call "hard cases,"—men, with coarse, bulldog features, their mustaches trimmed very close, and dyed with something that gives them a foxy-black hue. Women, many of them with children in their arms, have come to look out for bargains. Near the entrance, which is quite open to the street, there stands a man with a light cane in his hand, which he lays every now and then over the shoulders of some objectionable youth marked by him in the crowd. ”

“ And with that Bowyer burst into the room with his men behind him. He held a revolver in his hand.
"I shall shoot the first man who moves," he said; and no one did move. They stood like wax figures moulded in an attitude for ever. Imagine, if you can, the scene which confronted me! On the library ladder, with a hand thrust behind the books on one of the highest shelves, was mounted one of the three foreigners. A second--he whom we had seen at the window--stood over a chair into which Bradley Rymer was strapped with a gag over his mouth. The third supported Violet. ”

“ The Bowery is a mile of American life in which the nations of the earth meet for excitement and change. There is a business aspect of it which is permanent, but the many-colored throng surging up and down its side-walks all day and all night is ephemeral. It is the place for the homeless, for the out of kilter, for the rudderless wrecks who drift. ”

“ In 1724 Bowyer was a nonjuror; we know nothing more of his religious views except a few traces, in his early life, recorded by Ord in the 'History of Cleveland,' where it is said that he had a controversy with a priest who defended the conduct of his sister, a professed nun of the order of Poor Clares, at Dunkirk. The letters commence October 1696, and end in June 1697, at the time when he was a journeyman printer at Daniel Sheldon's in Bartholomew Close. He seems to have been a very kind-hearted man, and ever ready to show kindness to others. ”

“ Then, furtively, his eyes began for the hundredth time to note the details of our forest dress, stealing stealthily from the fringe on legging and hunting shirt to the Indian beadwork on moccasin and baldrick, devouring every detail as though to convince himself. I think our pewter buttons did it for him.
Boyd said gravely: "You seem to doubt us, Mr. Hays," and read in the man's unsteady eyes distrust of everything on earth—and little faith in God.
"I do not blame you," said I gently. "Three years of hell burn deep."
"Yes," he said, "three years. And, as you say, sir, there was fire." ”

“ Cabarreux may live long to enjoy his good fortune."
"The fortune is not his," cried Sam excitedly. "You don't understand. Boyer is the heir—the Honorable Peter M. Boyer. A man who stood in the Senate of the United States, Miss Calhoun. A man who knows the world—who will know how to give his wife place and power, and who will have money now to buy both." ”

“ There are subtleties, fine shades, in our modern love that cannot have been known to the Victorians; yet most of our stage-love to-day remains placidly Victorian. Was it Rochefoucauld or Chamfort who spoke of the many people who would never fall in love if they hadn’t heard it talked about? ”

“ Mr. Bower, having kept his promise, was here, and I read much of it at breakfast, having also another visitor from Brook Farm, Mr. Hecker [Isaac T. Hecker] . All were much interested in the facts reported, and Saml. Bower heard your remembrances fresh from your pen. You affect him more than any other person. In your next, you will perhaps devote a slip to him and I will forward it. He, Larned and Hecker visited the Shakers and were much attracted by them. Larned who, on common report, used to oppose them, talks of joining them, so pleasant is their society ”

“ Jean Pierre Boyer was born at Port au Prince, on the second of February, 1776, received a European education at Paris, fought under Rigaud and Toussaint L’Ouverture; and in consequence of the success which the black leader obtained, quitted the Island. Boyer returned to Hayti in Le Clerc’s expedition; he, however, separated from the French general-in-chief, and joined in the foremost in the great battle for the freedom of his race. He was a brave man, a good soldier, and proved himself a statesman of no ordinary ability. ”

“ Made him swaller his cud, too, by hokey! Say, Sam, my old dad used to feed a cow on bacon-rinds when she done lost her cud. You try it, Sam. Mebby it might help them ears! Shove that there trouble-killer over this way, Sammy, and don't look so fierce at your uncle Bill; he's liable to turn you across his knee and dust your pants proper." He turned again to Ford, scowling at the group and at life in general, while the snow melted upon his broad shoulders and trickled in little, hurrying drops down to the nearest jumping-off place. "Come, drownd your sorrer," Bill advised amiably. ”

“ Spencer was about to join him for a chat, when he recollected that Bower and the guide had an arrangement to meet in the morning.
[Pg 248]
With the memory came a queer jumble of impressions. Stampa’s story, told overnight, was a sad one; but the American was too fair minded to affect a moral detestation of Bower because of a piece of folly that wrecked a girl’s life sixteen years ago. If the sins of a man’s youth were to shadow his whole life, then charity and regeneration must be cast out of the scheme of things. Moreover, Bower’s version of the incident might put a new face on it. ”

“ Green, for your own interest and that of your employer, let me advise you to abandon your claims now, before we begin action in the matter. It will be simpler, and far, far cheaper. We have our clients to look after, and we have the law all on our side. These are bona fide settlers we are bringing in; men and women whose sole object is to make homes for themselves. The land laws are pretty strict, Mr. Green. If we set the wheels in motion they will break the Flying U.”
Andy grinned while he inspected his cigarette. ”

“ The cry of the chamois is not distinct but faint, and resembling that of a hoarse domestic goat: it is by this cry they collect together, and by which the mother calls her young. But when they are frightened, or perceive an enemy, or any object which they cannot distinguish, they warn the rest of the flock by a kind of whistling noise. The chamois has a very penetrating sight, and his hearing and smell are not less discriminating. When he sees a man near he stops for a [166] moment, and then flies off with the utmost speed. ”

“ A Sagamore never lies. I have drawn my brother's knife! Brother, I have spoken!"
And so it was done in that house and in the dark of dawn. Boyd silently gave him his hands, and so did I; then Boyd led him aside with a slight motion of dismissal to me.
As I walked toward the front door, which was now striding open, I saw Major Tallmadge go out ahead of me, run to the mounting-block, and climb into his saddle. Colonel Sheldon followed him to the doorway, and called after him:
"Take a dozen men with you, and meet Colonel Moylan! A dozen will be sufficient, Major!" ”

“ The sun is so hot now, and I should like to rest for a moment," she said.
"The western forest is clear of anything disagreeable," said Durand.
"Very well," I answered; "call me, Le Bihan, if you find anything."
Lys wheeled her mare, and I followed across the springy heather, Môme trotting cheerfully in the rear.
We entered the sunny woods about a quarter of a kilometre from where we left Durand. I took Lys from her horse, flung both bridles over a limb, and, giving my wife my arm, aided her to a flat mossy rock which overhung a shallow brook gurgling among the beech trees. ”

“ Chamois are gregarious, living in herds of 15 or 20, and feeding generally in the morning or evening. The old males, however, live alone except in the rutting season, which occurs in October, when they join the herds, driving off the younger bucks, and engaging in fierce contests with each other, that often end fatally for one at least of the combatants. ”

“ I was sorry to part from my poor civil guide and promised to summon him on our next visit, when he will probably no longer be there, for he was a delicate looking man with a hectic 339 colour in his cheek, and the inhabitants of Chamouny, from the sudden changes of temperature, are subject to inflammatory maladies. They bear a high character as being honest, faithful, and charitable, and their courage is incontestable, as it is with them a thing of course to risk their lives if those of their employers be in peril. ”

“ With a mighty effort, Bower regained the self-conceit that Stampa’s words, no less than the depressing environment, had shocked out of him. The grotesque nature of the proposal was a tonic in itself.
“If I had expected any such folly on your part, I should not have come with you,” he said, speaking with something of his habitual dignity. “Your suggestion is monstrous. How can I marry a dead woman?” ”

“ Now, jest drag him in there, will you, Snowball? And lock the door; or, no, jest drag him in there. The darn cuss might take a notion to die on my hands, and I want him alive; so you can keep an eye on him. When he comes to himself, I wanta talk to him."
"Yessuh, Mist' Meddalahk, yo'all sho' am a hahd man to git shet of bein' talked to!" Now that Palmer was safely tied, Sam could afford to take a full breath and to grin once more at his new friend. "When yo'all say you wanta talk wif a man, 'tain't no use to avoid de cawnvusashum—'tain't no mannah of use atall. ”

“ I sat down beside Boyd, cleared from the soil the leaves for a little space, drew my knife, and with its point traced out the map.
He listened in silence, while I went over all that the Sagamore had taught me; and around us squatted our Indians, motionless, fiercely intent upon my every word and gesture.
"Today is Sunday," I said. "By this hour, Butler's people should be in headlong flight. Our army will not follow them at once, because it will take all day tomorrow for our men to destroy the corn along the Chemung. ”

“ In order to avoid a quarrel, Champlain deemed it advisable to protect his men, and he therefore 134installed his brother-in-law, Eustache Boullé, and Captain Dumay with sixteen men, in the small fort which he had erected at Cape Diamond during the preceding year. Champlain defended himself within the habitation, where he quartered all the men he could dispose of. If the clerks were inclined to fight he would defend his position, but he hoped that these precautionary measures would prove the means of preventing bloodshed. ”

“ Early in the next year he took into partnership the apprentice-manager of his business, and thenceforward the ever-increasing success of the business was insured. The typographical anecdotes of the Bowyer Press from 1722, when Bowyer became a partner with his father, to 1766, when he took John Nichols into partnership, extend in Nichols's 'Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century' to 703 closely printed 8vo pages, and from the latter date to his death in 1777 the joint productions of Bowyer and Nichols occupy in description and anecdotes 293 further pages of the same work. ”