and the varieties they make up for the different
markets are astonishing. They were then very busy completing an order
for several thousand muskets for the Belgian troops, which load at the
breech and fire off without locks or priming. They showed me a
fowling-piece on the same principle, which they fired off under water.
But the low prices of the arms astonished me. There were a large
quantity of very long fowling-pieces with the _maker's_ name at
_Constantinople_, for the Turkish gentlemen, at thirty francs each: a
common musket was fourteen francs. I perceived in a corner a large
number of muskets, of infamous workmanship, and with locks resembling
those awkward attempts made two hundred years back. I asked what they
were for. They were for the South American market, and made to order,
for the people there would use no others: any improvement was eschewed
by them. I presume they had borrowed one of the Spanish muskets brought
over by Pizarro as a model, but, at all events, they were very cheap,
only eight francs each. God help us, how cheaply men can be killed
now-a-days!

It is very seldom that you now meet with a name beginning with an X, but
one caught my eye as I was walking through the streets here. _Urban
Xhenemont, negociant_. I perceive there are still some to be found in
Greece; the only one I know of in England is that of Sir Morris Ximenes,
who, I presume, claims descent from the celebrated cardinal. The
mention of that name reminds me of the songs of the improvisatore,
Theodore Hook, and his address in finding a rhyme for such an awkward
name as Ximenes. Few possess the talent of improvising. In Italy it is
more common, because the Italian language admits the rhyme with so much
facility; but a good improvisatore is rare even in that country. There
was a Dutchman who was a very good improvisatore, a poor fellow who went
about to amuse companies with his singing and this peculiar talent. One
day a gentleman dropped a gold Guillaume into a glass of Burgundy, and
told him if he would make a good impromptu, he should have both the wine
and the gold: without hesitation he took up the glass, and suiting the
action to the word, sang as follows:--

"Twee Goden in een Glas,
Wat zal ik van maken?
K' steek Plutus in myn tas,
K slaak Bacchus in myn Kaken."

Which may be rendered into French as follows:--

"Quoi! deux dieux dans un verre,
Eh bien! que vais-j'en faire?
J'empocherai P