MAKE WAY FOR THE DUKE . I03 



Amusing Anecdote concerning a Gallant Major. 



Nearly forty years ago the writer, with inexcusable 

 mischief, was guilty of perpetrating what he at the time 

 regarded as an innocent and harmless joke upon a gallant 

 Major, whose family, like the writer's, was of ancient 

 French origin — he being as was well known, a direct 



descendant of the Due de , who was chief Minister 



to Louis the th, — by writing a paragraph to the Leicester 



Journal, stating that : — 



After due deliberation the French Government had decided 

 to restore the Title and Estates of his noble ancestor to the 

 gallant Major, who, at the time, was staying at his marine 

 villa in the Isle of Wight — (where in reality he occupied 

 modest apartments), — and went on to say that on the Duke's 

 return to his hunting quarters, he would be sure to receive the 

 hearty congratulations of his numerous friends, etc. 



From the fact that the Government of France had 

 become a Republic, I naturally concluded that the joke 

 would be apparent to all, and to none more so than to the 

 Major himself; but to my surprise and the no small amuse- 

 ment of his friends and neighbours, the Major not only 

 failed to see the joke, but more than half persuaded himself 

 that the intentions of the Government, as expressed in the 

 paragraph, were not only possible but highly probable ! 

 The Major consequently became so highly elated that it 

 was imperatively necessary for his friends to appear 

 equally sanguine and act accordingly ; therefore, when 

 shortly afterwards, Mr. George Coleman held open the 

 gate at the corner of Norton Gorse, at the same time 



exclaiming, ''Make way for the Duke ," "the 



Duke " rode through with the utmost dignity and conde- 

 scension. The gratification and pleasure which I had 

 thus unwittingly afforded the Major may best be imagined 

 when I add that he cut the paragraph out of the journal 



