e happened to be a large holder of the Mississippi Bonds, he was
alarmed at the news; and being seated near the patient, whose pulse he
was feeling, he said with a deep sigh, "Ah, good God! they keep sinking,
sinking, sinking!" The poor sick lady hearing this, uttered a loud
shriek; the people ran to her immediately. "Ah," said she, "I shall die;
M. de Chirac has just said three times, as he felt my pulse, 'They keep
sinking!'" The Doctor recovered himself soon, and said, "You dream; your
pulse is very healthy, and you are very well. I was thinking of the
Mississippi stocks, upon which I lose my money, because their price
sinks." This explanation satisfied the sick lady.

The Duc de Sully was subject to frequent fits of abstraction. One day,
having dressed himself to go to church, he forgot nothing but his
breeches. This was in the winter; when he entered the church, he said,
"Mon Dieu, it is very cold to-day." The persons present said, "Not
colder than usual!"--"Then I am in a fever," he said. Some one suggested
that he had perhaps not dressed himself so warmly as usual, and, opening
his coat, the cause of his being cold was very apparent.

Our late King told me the following anecdote of Queen Christina of
Sweden: That Princess, instead of putting on a nightcap, wrapped her head
up in a napkin. One night she could not sleep, and ordered the musicians
to be brought into her bedroom; where, drawing the bed-curtains, she
could not be seen by the musicians, but could hear them at her ease. At
length, enchanted at a piece which they had just played, she abruptly
thrust her head beyond the curtains, and cried out, "Mort diable! but
they sing delightfully!" At this grotesque sight, the Italians, and
particularly the castrati, who are not the bravest men in the world, were
so frightened that they were obliged to stop short.

In the great gallery at Fontainebleau may still be seen the blood of the
man whom she caused to be assassinated; it was to prevent his disclosing
some secrets of which he was in possession that she deprived him of life.
He had, in fact, begun to chatter through jealousy of another person who
had gained the Queen's favour. Christina was very vindictive, and given
up to all kinds of debauchery.

Duke Frederick Augustus of Brunswick was delighted with Christina; he
said that he had never in his life met a woman who had so much wit, and
whose conversation was so truly diverting; he added that it