Chapter Patriot King to Peace of Antalcidas of P by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Pauvre Jacques. When Marie Antoinette had her artificial Swiss village in the “Little Trianon,” a Swiss girl was brought over to heighten the illusion. She was observed to pine, and was heard to sigh out, pauvre Jacques! This little romance pleased the queen, who sent for Jacques, and gave the pair a wedding portion; while the marchioness de Travanet wrote the song called Pauvre Jacques, which created at the time quite a sensation. The first and last verses ran thus—

Pauvre Jacques, quand j’etais près de tol,
Je ne sentais pas ma misère;
Mais à prèsnet que tu vis loin de moi,
Je manque de tout sur la terre.
Poor Jack, while I was near to thee,
Tho’ poor, my bliss was unalloyed;
But now thou dwell’st so far from me,
The world appears a lonesome void.
   —E. C. B.

Pavia (Battle of). Francois I. of France is said to have written to his mother these words after the loss of this battle, “Madame, tout est perdu hors l’honneur;” but what he really wrote was, “Madame…de toutes choses ne m’est demeurè pas que l’honneur et la vie.’

And with a noble siege revolted Pavia took.

Drayton: Polyolbion, xviii. (1613).

Pavilion of prince Ahmed. This pavilion was so small that it might be held and covered by the hand, and yet so large when pitched that a whole army could encamp beneath it. Its size, however, was elastic, being always proportionate to the army to be covered by it.—Arabian Nights (“Ahmed and PariBanou”).

Pavillon (Meinheer Hermann), the syndic at Liège [Le-aje].

Mother Mabel Pavillon, wife of meinheer Hermann.

Trudchen or Gertrude Pavillon, their daughter, betrothed to Hans Glover.—Sir W. Scott: Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.).

Pawkins (Major), a huge, heavy man, “one of the most remarkable of the age.” He was a great politician and great patriot, but generally under a cloud, wholly owing to his distinguished genius for bold speculations, not to say “swindling schemes.” His creed was “to run a moist pen slick through everything, and start afresh.”—Dickens: Martin Chuzzlewit (1844).

Pawnbrokers’ Balls. Every one knows that these balls are the arms of the Medici family, but it is not so well known that they refer to an exploit of Averardo de Medici, a commander under Charlemagne. This bold warrior slew the giant Mugello, whose club he bore as a trophy. This mace or club had three iron balls, which the family adopted as their device.—Roscoe: Life of Lorenzo de’ Medici (1796).

Paynim Harper (The), referred to by Tennyson in the Last Tournament, was Orpheus.

Swine, goats, rams, and geese
Trooped round a paynim harper once,…
Then were swine, goats, asses, geese
The wiser fools, seeing the paynim bard
Had such a mastery of his mystery
That he could harp his wife up out of hell.
   —Tennyson: The Last Tournament (1859).

Peace (Prince of), don Manuel Godoy, born at Badajoz. So called because he concluded the “peace of Basle” between the French and Spanish nations in 1795 (1767–1851).

The Father of Peace, Andrea Doria (1469–1560).

Peace (The Perpetual), a peace concluded between England and Scotland, a few years after the battle of Flodden Field (January 24, 1502).

Peace (The Surest Way to). Fox, afterwards bishop of Hereford, said to Henry VIII., The surest way to peace is a constant preparation for war. The Romans had the axiom, Si vis pacem, para bellum. It