as all a mistake of the telegraph, and that the dispatch should
have read "O'Shaughnessy," where the dispatch looked like
"Dalrymple." So here, as I whetted my pencil, wetted my lips, and
drove the attentive librarian at the Astor almost frantic as I sent
him up stairs for you five times more, it proved that Louis XIII.
did not spend Christmas in Paris, but that Bassompierre, who said
so, was a vile deceiver. Here is the truth in the _Mercure
Francaise_,--flattering and obsequious Annual Register of those
days:

"The King at the end of this year, visited the frontiers of Picardy. In
this whole journey, which lasted from the 14th of December to the 12th
of January (New Style), the weather was bad, and those in his Majesty's
suite found the roads bad." Change the style back to the way our
Puritans counted it, and observe that on the same days, the 5th of
December to the 3d of January, Old Style, those in the suite of John
Carver found the weather bad and the roads worse. Let us devoutly hope
that his most Christian Majesty did not find the roads as bad as his
suite did.

"And the King," continues the _Mercure_, "sent an extraordinary
Ambassador to the King of Great Britain, at London, the Marshal Cadenet"
(brother of the favorite Luynes). "He departed from Calais on Friday,
the first day of January, very well accompanied by _noblesse_. He
arrived at Dover the same evening, and did not depart from Dover until
the Monday after."

Be pleased to note, dear reader, that this Monday, when this Ambassador
of a most Christian King departs from Dover, is on Monday the 25th day
of December, of Old Style, or Protestant Style, when John Carver is
learning wood-cutting, by way of encouraging the others. Let us leave
the King of France to his bad roads, and follow the fortunes of the
favorite's brother, for we must study an English Christmas after all. We
have seen the Christmas holidays of men who had hard times for the
reward of their faith in the Star of Bethlehem. Let us try the fortunes
of the most Christian King's people, as they keep their second Christmas
of the year among a Protestant people. Observe that a week after their
own Christmas of New Style, they land in Old Style England, where
Christmas has not yet begun. Here is the _Mercure Francais's_ account of
the Christmas holidays,--flattering and obsequious, as I said:

"Marshal Cadenet did not depart from Dover till the Monday after"
(Christmas day, O. S.). "The Engli