The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-13
A sHABBY-GENTEEL NAV.

adventurer, Theodore, King of Corsica. He
joined his father, who died in Soho in 1855,
and supported himself as q teacher of
laDguages-a not uncommon resource
for poor gentlemen, and enigres in
particular. In the miserable
agonies of deferred hope, he still preserved
the great seal and regalia of Corsica. The
Colonel in early life, as a needy gentleman,
bad been reading secretary to Frederick the
Great, who treated him with that agreeable
Prussian pride that bears so lightly on the
unfortunate. The King always kept him
standing while he read his foolish verses aud
literary essays to Voltaire and other guests
seated at his table, Weary of this, the Col
onel applied to his relation, the Duke of
Wurtemberg, who offered him protection at
his court. When the King of Prussia was
informed of this, he said cruelly:-'And you
may go; it is fit that one beggar should live
with another"
He was once in such distress at the Court
of Vienna, as to have gone two whole days
without food. Pale and faint on the third
day he contrived to reach the house of q lady
in attendance at the court whose interest to
advance his petition with the Emperor he had
before tried to secure. Seeing too plainly
from his weak voice and faltering, detected
manner, that he was ILL., the womans heart
was touched; she instantly rang the bell,
ordered the well-fed blooming footman to
bring in dish of chocolate and some cakes;
and when he was cheered and heartened up,
listened to his request In ambush behind
that footman Cupid stole in on tip-toe; they
fell in love with each other, and married.
Their life was hard and painful yet love and
happiness frightened their poor lodgings.
One of the sons, an elegant young man,
became officer in the British army,
and was killed in the American war. One
day, when the Colonel was with his father
in the Bench, Sir John Stewart, fellow
prisoner, invited Lady Jane Douglas and her
child, the claimant in the great Douglas
Hamilton case; and King Theodore and his
son were of the party. The feast eliminated
in a turkey. The prison walls fell fiat as
those of Jericho before the pleasant en-
chantment of a bottle or two of wine.
When the party broke up the young Prince
offered to see Lady Jane home to her
obscure lodgings at Chelsea. A slight rain
came Oh, and the young officer longed to call
coach, but he had no money, he knew, aud
he was afraid Lady Jane had none either; So
defiant of all suspicious of meanness and
poverty, he undertook the child and trudged
away. This son of a King suffered much of
fortune, and the clouds grew darker aud
darker to the end To this claimant of
crown creditors faces were only too familiar.
When Stanislaus, Prince Poniatowski,
| hteIWdIub tuo idsJ mug Oh EOlduu, Was mere,
the only companion of his long walks was
Colonel Frederick. On one occasion the
Prince, having some bills to discount in the
| city, and not getting the money that day,
went for walk round Islington, and re-
turned to dinner of rump steaks and porter
at Dolly's chop house in Paternoster Row.
After finishing bottle of port the mGuoais
| quart dheuTe came, as it will come, and the
bill was brought. The Prince blandly ap.
proved and desired Frederick to pay.
"But have no money"
'More have 1; what are we to do?"
Frederick paused; telling the Prince to re-
main quiet, he ran out and pledged his
watch, and discharged the reckoning.
Ceaselessly and cruelty fortune pelted the
Colonel with her sleet and cutting rain His
lodgings in Northumberland street were
burnt down, and he had TO fly half nude to
the house of Mr.. Stirling, officiating coroner
for Middlesex, who generously offered him a
| gratuitous asylum, where he resided for
many years, reading the classics, and
discussed the German generals of the
day, according to his wont. The Colonel's
! life was one of blameless routine. He rose
early, lighted his own fire, cleaned his own
boots, then took breakfast cooked by him.
self, and read the classics: then it was time
for him to take his constitutional and visit his
friends. At last fortune, tired of playing
with her victim, struck a coup de grace. The
old Colonel, beloved and respected by his
friends, in a rash moment accepted two
notes for friend, "a trading Justice" The
man died before the notes became due,
and the city people came down on the Colo
mel. He had no money; he dreaded dis
grace and jail; his old dependency preyed
on him with weight of madness. He
thought of his favorite heroes in Tacitus and
Plutarch, and resolved to die as they died
He borrowed pistol of friend, and shot
himself one evening in the churchyard of ST.
Margaret, Westminster. Tormented by for
tune to the last, died the son of the first and
only King of ca.-EngIiSh Society.