The Merry Past 



and used to say, " By my word, an English gentleman 

 is the first gentleman in the vorld." It was not, 

 however, to everyone who claimed it that the Baron 

 accorded this title, having as nice a discrimination in 

 these matters as though he had lived in England all 

 his life. 



Though he could not speak a word of English on 

 his arrival, he learned to express himself in a remark- 

 ably short time — his stories and descriptions were of a 

 droll description. 



Coming to covert one morning on a lame hack, 

 someone said to him, " Why, Baron, your horse is 

 lame." " No, my good friend, him not lame," he 

 said, " but he beaucoup fatigue in one leg." 



Another morning he appeared in a prodigiously 

 smart red and gold waistcoat, fresh from Paris, in 

 which he had been figuring at a ball the night before. 

 A friend observed that it was too good to hunt in, to 

 which the Baron replied : " So said my valet ven he 

 dressed me ; but I told him, by my honour, there is 

 nothing too good for foxing in." On the very 

 same day. Captain Stanhope, the brother of Lady 

 Southampton, was expected out ; but not making his 

 appearance, someone asked the Baron, an intimate 

 friend of the Captain's, where he was. " Oh, by my 

 vord," said he, " poor Stanhope, I think he shall not 

 come to-day. He got von criminal bootmaker, who 

 make his boot so stout that he could no put his leg 

 about ; and ven I call at Albion this morning I find 

 him dancing about his chamber with one boot on, and 

 demming Charles in the veritable nautical fashion, till 



95 



