d cause the army to retreat at that critical moment;
this he would have conducted with his wonted skill, but for the breach of
duty in the officer under the sentence of the court-martial." "I
understand," impatiently returned the king; "one fight, he was right; the
other run away, he was wrong." It was in vain that ministers renewed their
arguments and explanations; his majesty could not, or would not, understand
the difference between a disgraceful flight and a politic retreat; they
were therefore obliged to end a discussion which merely drew forth the
repetition of the same judgment--"The one face the enemy and fight, he
right; the other turn his back and not fight, he wrong."

Ximenes.--At the siege of Oran, in Africa, Cardinal Ximenes led the Spanish
troops to the breach, mounted on a charger, dressed in his pontifical
robes, and preceded by a monk on horseback, who bore his archiepiscopal
cross. "Go on, go on, my children," exclaimed he to the soldiers, "I am at
your head. A priest should think it an honour to expose his life for his
religion. I have an example in my predecessors, in the archbishopric of
Toledo. Go on to victory." When his victorious troops took possession of
the town, he burst into tears on seeing the number of the dead that were
lying on the ground; and was heard to say to himself, "They were indeed
infidels, but they might have become Christians. By their death, they have
deprived us of the principal advantage of the victory we have gained over
them."

An Odd Grenadier.--During the famous siege of Gibraltar, in the absence of
the fleet, and when an attack was daily expected, one dark night, a
sentinel, whose post was near a tower facing the Spanish lines, was
standing at the end of his walk, looking towards them, his head filled
with nothing but fire and sword, miners, breaching, storming, and
bloodshed, while by the side of his box stood a deep narrow-necked earthen
jug, in which was the remainder of his supper, consisting of boiled pease.
A large monkey (of which there were plenty at the top of the rock),
encouraged by the man's absence, and allured by the smell of the pease,
ventured to the jug; and, in endeavouring to get at its contents, thrust
his neck so far into the jug, as to be unable to withdraw it. At this
instant, the soldier approaching, the monkey started up to escape, with the
jug on his head. This terrible monster no sooner saluted the eyes of the
sentry, than his frantic im