{"id":"01KG8AMYFYQPW6CNMDMXSCCBVV","cid":"bafkreifpoxlcpd4roz5rjhkt6wujnhkbverxmimmpqswzidharvgto5dqe","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1128,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.918Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","start_line":1072,"text":"succession to the German Empire should be contested, and one poor lame\r\nlawyer should present the claims of the first excellingly beautiful\r\nwoman he chanced to see--she would thereupon be unanimously elected\r\nEmpress of the Holy Roman German Empire;--that is to say, if all the\r\nGermans were true, free-hearted and magnanimous gentlemen, at all\r\ncapable of appreciating so immense an honor.\r\n\r\nIt is nonsense to talk of France as the seat of all civility. Did not\r\nthose French heathen have a Salique law? Three of the most bewitching\r\ncreatures,--immortal flowers of the line of Valois--were excluded from\r\nthe French throne by that infamous provision. France, indeed! whose\r\nCatholic millions still worship Mary Queen of Heaven; and for ten\r\ngenerations refused cap and knee to many angel Maries, rightful Queens\r\nof France. Here is cause for universal war. See how vilely nations, as\r\nwell as men, assume and wear unchallenged the choicest titles, however\r\nwithout merit. The Americans, and not the French, are the world's models\r\nof chivalry. Our Salique Law provides that universal homage shall be\r\npaid all beautiful women. No man's most solid rights shall weigh against\r\nher airiest whims. If you buy the best seat in the coach, to go and\r\nconsult a doctor on a matter of life and death, you shall cheerfully\r\nabdicate that best seat, and limp away on foot, if a pretty woman,\r\ntraveling, shake one feather from the stage-house door.\r\n\r\nNow, since we began by talking of a certain young lady that went out\r\nriding with a certain youth; and yet find ourselves, after leading such\r\na merry dance, fast by a stage-house window;--this may seem rather\r\nirregular sort of writing. But whither indeed should Lucy Tartan conduct\r\nus, but among mighty Queens, and all other creatures of high degree; and\r\nfinally set us roaming, to see whether the wide world can match so fine\r\na wonder. By immemorial usage, am I not bound to celebrate this Lucy\r\nTartan? Who shall stay me? Is she not my hero's own affianced? What can\r\nbe gainsaid? Where underneath the tester of the night sleeps such\r\nanother?\r\n\r\nYet, how would Lucy Tartan shrink from all this noise and clatter! She\r\nis bragged of, but not brags. Thus far she hath floated as stilly\r\nthrough this life, as thistle-down floats over meadows. Noiseless, she,\r\nexcept with Pierre; and even with him she lives through many a panting\r\nhush. Oh, those love-pauses that they know--how ominous of their\r\nfuture; for pauses precede the earthquake, and every other terrible\r\ncommotion! But blue be their sky awhile, and lightsome all their chat,\r\nand frolicsome their humors.\r\n\r\nNever shall I get down the vile inventory! How, if with paper and with\r\npencil I went out into the starry night to inventorize the heavens? Who\r\nshall tell stars as teaspoons? Who shall put down the charms of Lucy\r\nTartan upon paper?\r\n\r\nAnd for the rest; her parentage, what fortune she would possess, how\r\nmany dresses in her wardrobe, and how many rings upon her fingers;\r\ncheerfully would I let the genealogists, tax-gatherers, and upholsterers\r\nattend to that. My proper province is with the angelical part of Lucy.\r\nBut as in some quarters, there prevails a sort of prejudice against\r\nangels, who are merely angels and nothing more; therefore I shall\r\nmartyrize myself, by letting such gentlemen and ladies into some details\r\nof Lucy Tartan's history.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AKJA92KSTE99H9XZH97QX","peer_type":"subsection","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMYFYYAHTNPD8T1DM1YFP","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMYF095JA5ASWTVZGZKJC","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:53.758Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:02.778Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}