to powder.

In connection with this, the following may not be irrelevent:--

The following anecdote of Huerta the celebrated Spanish guitarist, is
taken from one of M. Ella's programmes:--

"In the year 1826 the famous Huerta, who astonished the
English by his performances on the guitar, was anxious to be
introduced to the leader of the Italian Opera Band--a
warm-hearted and sensitive Neapolitan--Spagnoletti. The
latter had a great contempt for guitars, concertinas, and
other fancy instruments not used in the orchestra. He was
fond of snuff, had a capacious nose, and, when irritated,
would ejaculate '_Mon Dieu!_' On my presenting the vain
Spaniard to Spagnoletti, the latter inquired, 'Vat you
play?' Huerta--'De guitar-r-r, sare.' Spagnoletti--'De
guitar! humph!' (takes a pinch of snuff.) Huerta--'Yeas,
sare, de guitar-r-r, and ven I play my _adagio_, de tears
shall run down both side your pig nose.' 'Vell den,' (taking
snuff,) said Spagnoletti, 'I vill not hear your _adagio_.'"

The anecdote related of Count de Tesse, a celebrated courtier of
France, is one of the best of its kind:--

"Count de Tesse, Marshal of France, was an eminent man
during the reign of Louis XIV. Though he was a brave soldier
and by no means an incompetent general, yet he was more
remarkable as a skillful diplomatist and a pliant and
prosperous courtier. During the War of Succession in Spain,
he besieged Barcelona with a considerable army, in the
spring of 1705. Terrible was the assault, and terrible was
the resistance. At the end of six weeks the arrival of the
British fleet, and reinforcements thrown into the place,
forced Marshal Tesse to retire. Besides immense losses in
dead and wounded, he had to abandon two hundred and twenty
cannon and all his supplies. Incessantly fighting for
fifteen days in his retreat towards the Pyrenees, he lost
three thousand more of his men. It ought to be said, in
vindication of Tesse, that he undertook the siege by express
and urgent command of the French King, and contrary to his
own judgment; for in writing to a friend, he said: 'If a
Consistory were held to decide the infallibility of the
King, as Consistories have been held to decide the
infallibility of the Pope, I should by my vote declare His
Majesty infallible. His orders hav