AX ATTACK UPON THE " UIGIITS OF MAN." 413 



arrival of the Commissary of Police, whom one of the servants had 

 gone to seek, and who, having inquired into the origin and progress 

 of the battle, addressed the Count and Paine to this effect : " Gentle- 

 men, you are old friends and good Republicans, the cause of your 

 difference is trifling your honour is untarnished pray make up this 

 trifling dissention, which is unworthy the high reputation you both 

 maintain in Europe, whose eyes are ever directed to you as examples 

 of all that is dignified and decorous in society, and try to forget that 

 your happy friendship has ever deviated from the paths of cordial and 

 mutual esteem. Soyez amis, Messieurs, soyez heureux." Ever since 

 the commencement of the French Revolution, the recommendation of 

 a Commissary of Police has had peculiar weight in every class of 

 society in France ; and Paine was accordingly bundled off in the 

 Count's carriage to Sceaux, whence he reached Paris the same eve- 

 ning. 



Count Zenobio having, during the night, reflected on the unfortu- 

 nate occurrence, went the next morning to a mutual friend in Paris, 

 to consult with him on what was to be clone in such a predicament ; 

 saying, that as Paine had really been insulted in his house, he deemed 

 it would be only proper to give him the satisfaction due from one 

 gentleman to another, and requested that friend to wait on Mr. 

 Paine without delay, to mention he accepted his challenge, and would 

 meet him when time and place should be appointed. 



The friend went off to Paine, found him, at half-past eleven, still 

 in bed at his lodgings, in the Rue de Odeon, scratched, battered, and 

 bruised, like a common prize-fighter, and having communicated the 

 Count's message, received for answer " What, sir, / meet, / fight 

 a fellow who, when he had had a smack on the chops, sent for a 

 Commissary of Police ! ! No, sir, go tell the little long-nosed con- 

 temptible brute, I shall lampoon him." 



Paine, however, was not an universal genius ; he was not a poet ; 

 but he wrote the following verses : 



1. 

 Walking along the other day, 



Upon a certain plan ; 

 I met a nose upon the way, 



Behind it was a man. 



2. 

 I called unto this nose to stop, 



And when it had done so, 

 The man behind it then came up, 



And made ZENOBIO. 



When this doggrel made its appearance among the refugee English 

 in Paris, most of whom were indebted to Count Zenobio' s generosity 

 and hospitality, it gave general disgust ; but one of them, a Mr. 

 Thompson, who was much attached to the Count, took up the cudgels 

 for his friend, in the following lines, as a reply : 



1. 

 Walking along the other day, 



I met a face, 'twould suit a vicar ; 

 It did a ruddy moon display ; 



Behind it reel'd a form in liquor. 



