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Show An Old Spider Story - Spiders crawling more abundantly and conspicuously than usual upon the indoor walls of houses fortell the approach of rain, but the following anecdote intimates that some of their habits are the equally certain indications of frost being near at hand. Quartermaster Disjonval, seeking to beguile the tedium of his prison-house at Etrecht, had studied attentively the habits of the spider; and eight years of imprisonment had given hem leisure to be well versed in its ways. In December of 1791, the French army, on whose success his restoration to liberty depended on was in Holland, and the victory seemed certain if the frost, then of ? dented severity, continued. The Dutch envoy had failed to negotiate a treaty of peace, and Holland was despairing when the frost suddenly broke. The Dutch were now exulting, and the French generals prepared to retreat; but the spider warned Disjonval that the thaw would be of short duration, and he knew that his weather-monitor never deceived. He contrived to communicate with the army of his countrymen and its generals, who duly estimated his character and relied upon his assurance that within a few days the water would again be passable by the troops. They delayed their retreat. Within twelve days the frost had returned - the French army triumphed. Disjonval was liberated; and a spider had brought down ruin on the Dutch nation. |