"Yes, but Murat was
still the son of a pastry-cook, and though he was certainly good at
the sabre, and cut his way to a throne, still--" Lord! what fools
there are in the world; but as no one can be thought anything of in
this world without a pedigree, the writer will now give a pedigree
for Murat, of a very different character from the cow-stealing one
of Scott, but such a one as the proudest he might not disdain to
claim. Scott was descended from the old cow-stealers of Buccleuch-
-was he? Good! and Murat was descended from the old Moors of
Spain, from the Abencerages (sons of the saddle) of Granada. The
name Murat is Arabic, and is the same as Murad (Le Desire, or the
wished-for one). Scott in his genteel Life of Bonaparte, says that
"when Murat was in Egypt, the similarity between the name of the
celebrated Mameluke Mourad and that of Bonaparte's Meilleur Sabreur
was remarked, and became the subject of jest amongst the comrades
of the gallant Frenchman." But the writer of the novel of
Bonaparte did not know that the names were one and the same. Now
which was the best pedigree, that of the son of the pastry-cook, or
that of the son of the pettifogger? Which was the best blood? Let
us observe the workings of the two bloods. He who had the blood of
the "sons of the saddle" in him, became the wonderful cavalier of
the most wonderful host that ever went forth to conquest, won for
himself a crown, and died the death of a soldier, leaving behind
him a son, only inferior to himself in strength, in prowess, and in
horsemanship.
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