Knowledge.—­The famous Duval, librarian to the Emperor Francis the First, often used to reply to questions that were put to him, “I do not know.”  An ignoramus one day said to him, “But the emperor pays you for knowing.”  “The emperor,” he replied, “pays me for what I know; if he were to pay me for what I am ignorant of, all the treasures of his empire would not be sufficient.”

Bautru, a celebrated French wit, being in Spain, went to visit the famous library of the Escurial, where he found a very ignorant librarian.  The King of Spain asked him his opinion of it.  “It is an admirable one, indeed,” said he; “but your majesty should give the man who has the care of it the administration of your finances.”—­“Wherefore?” asked the king.  “Because,” replied Bautru, “the man never touches the treasure that is confided to him.”

MAGNANIMITY.

At the siege of one of the strong towns in Flanders, during the wars of Louis XIV., it was necessary to reconnoitre the point of attack.  The danger was great, and a hundred louis were promised to any one who would undertake it.  Several of the bravest of the soldiers appeared indifferent to the offer, when a young man stepped forward to undertake the task; he left the detachment, and remained absent a long time; he was thought killed.  While the officers were deploring his fate, he returned, and gained their admiration no less by the precision than the sang froid of his recital.  The hundred louis were immediately presented to him. “Vous vous moquez de moi, mon general,” was his reply; “va-t-on la pour de l’argent.”—­[You are jesting with me, general; one does not perform such actions for money.]

Colonel Hawker, who commanded the 14th Light Dragoons in most of the serious engagements in the Peninsula, having formerly lost an arm in action, was attended by an orderly man, who held a guiding rein to the bridle of the colonel’s charger; this attendant being slain by his side, just as the enemy’s cavalry had broken the line of the 14th, by a heavy charge of superior numbers, great slaughter ensued on both sides, when a French officer immediately opposed to Colonel Hawker, lifted up his sabre, and was in the act of cutting him down, but observing the loss of his arm, he instantly dropped the point on the colonel’s shoulder, and, bending his head, passed on.  A truly noble adversary!

St. Louis.—­Louis IX., after his captivity among the Saracens, was, with his queen and children, nearly shipwrecked on his return to France, some of the planks of the vessel having started.  He was pressed to go on board another ship, and so escape the danger, but he refused, saying, “Those that are with me, most assuredly are as fond of their lives as I can be of mine.  If I quit the ship, they will likewise quit it; and the vessel not being large enough to receive them, they will all perish.  I had rather entrust my life, and the lives of my wife and children, in the hands of God, than be the occasion of making so many of my brave subjects suffer.”