Miscellaneous Anecdotes Illustrative of the Manners and History of Europe; During the Reigns of Charles II, James II, William III, and Q. Anne

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1811. Excerpt: ... SPIRITED CONDUCT t)F M. MASKER. Masner was an inhabitant of Coire, the capital of the Grisons, and had deeply interested himself in the affairs of the Allies, when contending with France in the reign of Lewis XIV. for whom he acted as the Emperor's commissary in passing their troops through that territory. The French government, at a loss in what manner to punish him without involving themselves with his countrymen, at length determined to seize his son, and, by conveying him to France, thus to hold him as a hostage for the father's future conduct. Young Masner was then a student at Geneva, and had an intimate friend, as he supposed, in a youth named Merveilleux: this villain, bribed by the agents employed on the occasion, contrived to lead the unsuspecting Masner within the boundaries of the French territory, where persons waited by appointment, who seized him, and carried him a prisoner to Lyons. Equally enraged and grieved at the hazardous situation of the youth, the elder Masner laid violent hands on the interpreter of the French embassy, and confined him in his own house at Coire, hoping that, by so doing, he should cause a discussion of the whole affair, and obtain the liberation of his son; accordingly the ambassador of France made a formal complaint, and Masner justified justified his retaliation; but ihe former was too subtile for the latter, and he recovered his interpreter by merely promising, in the name of his master, to restore the prisoner, which promise the king never thought of performing. The government of France now supposed itself to be perfectly secure against any further molestation from Masner. This, however, was not the fact; for that intrepid gentleman hearing that the Grand Prior Vendosme had departed from Venice on his wav to P...