" So saying, he took out the ivory teeth, and
exclaimed with an air of triumph, "There, what do you think of that?"
"Poh! nonsense! surprise me," replied Foster, "I knew perfectly well
they were false." "How the devil could you know that?" said Storace.
"Why," rejoined Foster, "_I never knew anything true come out of your
mouth!_"--_Athenaeum_.
* * * * *
The King of Prussia, in his correspondence with Voltaire, relates the
following anecdote of the Czar Peter, as illustrative of Russian
despotism:--"I knew Printz, the great marshal of the court of Prussia,
who had been ambassador to the Czar Peter, in the reign of the late
king. The commission with which he was charged proving very acceptable,
the prince was desirous of giving him conspicuous marks of his
satisfaction, and for this purpose a sumptuous banquet was prepared, and
to which Printz was invited. They drank brandy, as is customary with the
Russians, and they drank it to a brutal excess. The Czar, who wished to
give a particular grace to the entertainment, sent for twenty of the
Strelitz Guards, who were confined in the prisons of Petersburgh, and
for every large bumper which they drank, this hideous monster struck-off
the head of one of these wretches.
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