Page:Curiosities of Olden Times.djvu/65

Strange Wills The Abbé de la Rivière, son of an appraiser of wood, who became Bishop-duke of Langres, devised 100 ecus for that purpose. But La Monnoye wrote the following:

Another clause in the Abbe's will deserves to be recorded, from its pithiness:

This reminds one of an anecdote told of the Cardinal Dubois, whose servants came to him every New Year's Day to present their congratulations, and to receive a New Year's box. When the steward came in his turn, the Cardinal said to him:

The pleasure of receiving a legacy must be generally mingled with pain, more or less intense, according to the nearness of relationship of the deceased, or the affection we have had for him: but, when a plump legacy drops into our laps from a totally unexpected quarter, and left by one for whom we did not care, or possibly whom we did not know,—the amount of pain must be very minute. Such 53