Strange Wills
The Abbé de la Rivière, son of an appraiser of wood, who became Bishop-duke of Langres, devised 100 ecus for that purpose. But La Monnoye wrote the following:
Here lies a notable personage,
Of family proud, of ancient lineage;
His virtues unnumbered, his knowledge profound,
Remarkably humble, remarkably wise;—
Come, come! for twenty-five pound,
I've told enough lies!
Another clause in the Abbe's will deserves to be recorded, from its pithiness:
To my steward, I leave nothing; because he has been in my service for eighteen years.
This reminds one of an anecdote told of the Cardinal Dubois, whose servants came to him every New Year's Day to present their congratulations, and to receive a New Year's box. When the steward came in his turn, the Cardinal said to him:
Monsieur, I present you with all that you have stolen from me.
The pleasure of receiving a legacy must be generally mingled with pain, more or less intense, according to the nearness of relationship of the deceased, or the affection we have had for him: but, when a plump legacy drops into our laps from a totally unexpected quarter, and left by one for whom we did not care, or possibly whom we did not know,—the amount of pain must be very minute. Such
53
