A French Prince becomes the Good Samaritan of a hurt soldier

[The Duke of Berry] was a good husband, a good friend, and a good master. Much beloved in his own house, he established perfect order there, When he learned that one of his servants had deposited money in the savings bank, he doubled the sum, so as to encourage his domestics to practice economy and make them provident for the future. Anecdotes were told about him which showed his natural goodness.

One day the horse of a dragoon of the guard, who was accompanying the King, fell down, and the dragoon’s leg was broken. The Duke of Berry, who was out driving with his wife, met the poor fellow. He alighted from the carriage at once, had the soldier put into it, ordered that he should be taken to the Elysée and cared for until he should be completely cured, and then walked home with the Princess under a burning sun.

Imbert de Saint-Amand, The Duchess of Berry and the Court of Louis XVIII, trans. Elizabeth Gilbert Martin (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1892), pp. 139-140.

 

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 232

 

Tagged as: Chivalry, Elites, Leaders, Nobility, Short Stories