Comic Tales and Lyrical Fancies including The Chessiad, a Mock-Heroic, in Five Cantos; and The Wreath of Love, in Four Cantos. By C. Dibdin, the Younger |
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ANECDOTE OF DANIEL FRANCIS VOISIN,
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 | Comic Tales and Lyrical Fancies |  |
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ANECDOTE OF DANIEL FRANCIS VOISIN,
Minister of State and Chancellor to Louis XIV.
When his Chancellor Voisin, once, Louis fourteenA pardon commanded to seal,
For a wretch who for pardon too guilty had been,
He refus'd; nor his scorn could conceal.
The king snatch'd the seals, and the pardon impress'd,
Then to Voisin return'd them, the king who address'd,
“Forgive me, dread sire, if the seals I refuse,
Such contamination the act must excuse.”
Louis, struck by his firmness, could only admire,
And the pardon instinctively threw in the fire;
Voisin took back the seals, when 'twas burnt to a spark,
“Fire purifies every thing”—all his remark.
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