The better men that I meant were
the sailors in the British navy, every man of whom mends his own
stockings. Who else is to do it? Do you suppose, reader, that the
junior lords of the admiralty are under articles to darn for the navy?
The reason, meantime, for my systematic hatred of D'Arc is this: There
was a story current in France before the Revolution, framed to ridicule
the pauper aristocracy, who happened to have long pedigrees and short
rent rolls: viz., that a head of such a house, dating from the
Crusades, was overheard saying to his son, a Chevalier of St. Louis,
"_Chevalier, as-tu donne au cochon a manger_?" Now, it is clearly
made out by the surviving evidence that D'Arc would much have preferred
continuing to say, "_Ma fille, as-tu donne au cochon a manger_?" to
saying, "_Pucelle d'Orleans, as-tu sauve les fleurs-de-lys_?" There
is an old English copy of verses which argues thus:
"If the man that turnips cries
Cry not when his father dies,
Then 'tis plain the man had rather
Have a turnip than his father."
I cannot say that the logic of these verses was ever _entirely_ to
my satisfaction. I do not see my way through it as clearly as could be
wished. But I see my way most clearly through D'Arc; and the result is
--that he would greatly have preferred not merely a turnip to his
father, but the saving a pound or so of bacon to saving the Oriflamme
of France.
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