And did you ever observe what a great likeness there is in
the characters of the two apostates, Julian and Frederick the Great?'
'Then you like history for the sake of comparing the characters
mentioned in it?' said Anne.
'I think so,' said Elizabeth; 'and that is the reason I hate
abridgements, the mere bare bones of history. I cannot bear dry
facts, such as that Charles the Fifth beat Francis the First, at
Pavia, in a war for the duchy of Milan, and nothing more told about
them. I am always ready to say, as the Grand Seignior did about some
such great battle among the Christians, that I do not care whether
the dog bites the hog, or the hog bites the dog.'
'What a kind interest in your fellow-creatures you display!' said
Anne. 'I think one reason why I like history is because I am
searching out all the characters who come up to my notion of perfect
chivalry, or rather of Christian perfection. I am making a book of
true knights. I copy their portraits when I can find them, and write
the names of those whose likenesses I cannot get. I paint their
armorial bearings over them when I can find out what they are, and I
have a great red cross in the first page.
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