blue coat, claimed entrance at the yard gate. The sentinel demanded the
countersign, which the general not knowing, desired the officer of the
guard to be sent for, who proved to be the lieutenant whom the general had
treated so cavalierly.--"Who are you?" inquired the officer.--"I am General
Mackenzie," was the reply.--"What, without an uniform?" rejoined the
lieutenant; "oh, get back, get back, impostor; the general would break your
bones if he knew you assumed his name." The general on this made his
retreat; and the next day, inviting the young officer to breakfast, told
him--"He had done his duty with very commendable exactness."


Morvilliers, keeper of the seals to Charles the Ninth of France, was one
day ordered by his sovereign to put the seals to the pardon of a nobleman
who had committed murder. He refused. The king then took the seals out of
his hands, and having put them himself to the instrument of remission,
returned them immediately to Morvilliers, who refused to take them again,
saying, "The seals have twice put me in a situation of great honour: once
when I received them, and again when I resigned them."


Louis the Fourteenth had granted a pardon to a nobleman who had committed
some very great crime. M. Voisin, the chancellor, ran to him in his
closet, and exclaimed, "Sire, you cannot pardon a person in the situation
of Mr. ----." "I have promised him," replied the king, who was always
impatient of contradiction; "go and fetch the great seal." "But sire--."
"Pray, sir, do as I order you." The chancellor returned with the seals;
Louis applied them himself to the instrument containing the pardon, and
gives them again to the chancellor. "They are polluted, now, sire,"
exclaimed the intrepid and excellent magistrate, pushing them from him on
the table, "I cannot take them again." "What an impracticable man!" cried