When the allied monarchs came down, and were made Doctors of the
University, a breakfast was given at Saint Boniface; on which occasion
Crump allowed the Emperor Alexander to walk before him, but took the PAS
himself of the King of Prussia and Prince Blucher. He was going to put
the Hetman Platoff to breakfast at a side-table with the under college
tutors; but he was induced to relent, and merely entertained that
distinguished Cossack with a discourse on his own language, in which he
showed that the Hetman knew nothing about it.
As for us undergraduates, we scarcely knew more about Crump than about
the Grand Llama. A few favoured youths are asked occasionally to tea at
the lodge; but they do not speak unless first addressed by the Doctor;
and if they venture to sit down, Crump's follower, Mr. Toady, whispers,
'Gentlemen, will you have the kindness to get up?--The President is
passing;' or 'Gentlemen, the President prefers that undergraduates
should not sit down;' or words to a similar effect.
To do Crump justice, he does not cringe now to great people. He rather
patronizes them than otherwise; and, in London, speaks quite affably to
a Duke who has been brought up at his college, or holds out a finger
to a Marquis. He does not disguise his own origin, but brags of it with
considerable self-gratulation:--'I was a Charity-boy,' says he; 'see
what I am now; the greatest Greek scholar of the greatest College of the
greatest University of the greatest Empire in the world.
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