406 SUNDRY JOURNEYS AND EXPERIENCES -II 



ought to have been accomplished long ago, and that the 

 delay of action in the premises was due to English ti 

 midity. Both he and Lady Lytton were very agreeable. 

 He gave an interesting account of a native drama per 

 formed before him in India at the command of one of 

 the great princes, though speaking of it as &quot;deadly dull.&quot; 

 Speaking of difficulties in learning idioms, he told the 

 story of a German professor who, priding himself on his 

 thorough knowledge of English idioms, said, &quot;We must, 

 as you English say, take ze cow by ze corns.&quot; At this 

 some one rejoined with the story of the learned baboo 

 in India who spoke of something as &quot;magnificent, soul- 

 inspiring, and tip-top.&quot; As another example of baboo 

 English was mentioned the inscription upon one of the 

 show-cases in an exhibition in India: &quot;All the goods in 

 this case are for sale, but they cannot be removed until 

 after the day of judgment.&quot; 



In the evening met the Historical Club at Oscar Brown 

 ing s rooms, and heard an admirable paper by Professor 

 Seeley on &quot;Bourbon Family Compacts.&quot; He said that 

 the fact of their existence was not fully established until 

 Ranke mentioned them, and that he, Seeley, then exam 

 ined the English Foreign Office records and found them. 

 He spoke of them as refuting the arguments of Macaulay 

 and others as to the folly of supposing that different 

 branches of the same family on different thrones are 

 likely to coalesce. Oscar Browning then read a paper on 

 the flight of Louis XVI to Varennes. It was elaborate, 

 and based on close study and personal observation. 

 Browning had even taken measurements of the distance 

 over which King Louis passed on that fatal night, with 

 the result that he proved Carlyle s account to be entirely 

 inaccurate, and his indictment against Louis XVI based 

 upon it to be absurd. So far from the King having lum 

 bered along slowly through the night in Mme. Korf s 

 coach because he had not the force of character to make 

 his driver go rapidly, Browning found that the journey 

 was made in remarkably quick time. 



