for one day by his royal master, for the purpose of
assisting in the preparation of a glorious dish of _Truffes a la puree
d'ortolans_; and their joint efforts being more than usually successful,
the happy friends sat down to _Truffes a la puree d'ortolans_ for ten, the
whole of which they caused to disappear between them, and then each
retired to rest, triumphing in the success of their happy toils. In the
middle of the night, however, the Duc d'Escars suddenly awoke, and found
himself alarmingly indisposed. He rang the bells of his apartment, when
his servant came in, and his physicians were sent for; but they were of no
avail, for he was dying of a surfeit. In his last moments he caused some
of his attendants to go and inquire whether his majesty was not suffering
in a similar manner with himself, but they found him sleeping soundly and
quietly. In the morning, when the king was informed of the sad catastrophe
of his faithful friend and servant, he exclaimed, "Ah, I told him I had
the better digestion of the two."

W.G.C.

* * * * *

THE SKETCH BOOK.

EVERY MAN IN HIS HUMOUR. A FRAGMENT.

(_For the Mirror_.)

During the rage of the last continental war in Europe, occasion--no matter
what--called an honest Yorkshire squire to take a journey to Warsaw.
Untravelled and unknowing, he provided himself no passport: his business
concerned himself alone, and what had foreign nations to do with him? His
route lay through the states of neutral and contending powers. He landed
in Holland--passed the usual examination; but, insisting that the affairs
which brought him there were of a private nature, he was
imprisoned--questioned--sifted;--and appearing to be incapable of design,
was at length permitted to pursue his journey.

To the officer of the guard who conducted him to the frontiers he made
frequent complaints of the loss he should sustain by the delay. He swore
it was uncivil, and unfriendly, and ungenerous: five hundred Dutchmen
might have travelled through Great Britain without a question,--they never
questioned any stranger in Great Britain, nor stopped him, nor imprisoned
him, nor guarded him.

Roused from his native phlegm by these reflections on the police of his
country, the officer slowly drew the pipe from his mouth, and emitting the
smoke, "Mynheer," said he, "when you first set your foot on the land of
the Seven United Provinces, you should have declared you came h