most wonderful eyes--so
large, so soft, so bright, and set to perfection in her kind, good face.
She was round, and fresh, and dimpled, and spoilt, most charmingly
timid, most bewitchingly self-willed. She was the daughter of Mr.
Meagles, and married Henry Gowan.--C. Dickens, _Little Dorrit_ (1857).

=P['e]taud= (_King_), king of the beggars.

"It is an old saying," replied the Abb['e] Huet, "Petaud being
derived from the Latin _peto_, 'I beg.'"--_Asylum Christi_, ii.

_The court of King P['e]taud_, a disorderly assembly, a place of utter
confusion, a bear-garden.

On n'y respecte rien, chacun y parle haut,
Et c'est tout justement le cour du roi P['e]taud.

Moli[`e]re _Tartuffe_, i. 1 (1664).

Le cour du roi P['e]taud, o[`u] chacun est maitre.--_French Proverb._

=Petella=, the waiting-woman of Rosalura and Lillia-Bianca, the two
daughters of Nantolet.--Beaumont and Fletcher, _The Wild-goose Chase_
(1652).

=Peter=, the stupid son of Solomon, butler of the Count Wintersen. He
grotesquely parrots in an abridged form whatever his father says. Thus:
_Sol._ "we are acquainted with the reverence due to exalted personages."
_Pet._ "Yes, we are acquainted with exalted personages." Again: _Sol._
"Extremely sorry it is not in my power to entertain your lordship."
_Pet._ "Extremely sorry." _Sol._ "Your lordship's most obedient, humble,
and devoted servant." _Pet._ "Devoted servant."--Benjamin Thompson, _The
Stranger_ (1797).

_Peter_, the pseudonym of John Gibson Lockhart, in a work entitled
_Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk_ (1819).

_Peter_ (_Lord_), the pope of Rome.--Dean Swift, _Tale of a Tub_ (1704).

=Peter Botte=, a steep, almost perpendicular "mountain" in the Mauritius,
more than 2800 feet in height. It is so called from Peter Botte, a Dutch
sailor, who scaled it and fixed a flag on its summit, but lost his life
in coming down.

=Peter Parley=, the _nom de plume_ of Samuel G. Goodrich, an American,
whose books for children had an enormous circulation in the middle of
the nineteenth century (1793-1860).

The name was pirated by numerous persons. Darton and Co., Simkins,
Bogue, Tegg, Hodson, Clements, etc., brought out books under the name,
but not written by S. G. Goodrich.

=Peter Peebles=, a litigious, hard-hearted drunkard, noted for his
lawsuit.--Sir W. Scott, _Redgauntlet_ (time, George III.).

=Peter Pindar=, the pseudonym of Dr. John Wolcot, of Dodbrooke, D