Then he looked at his watch again, but this time at its face.
"Well, it shall be at four o'clock, if you like; it is past three o'clock. I ask for fifty minutes. Is that too much, sir?"
The registrar bowed and went out. The general was about to follow him.
"Shall I never see you again, Nunziante?" said Murat.
"My orders are to be present at your death, sire, but I cannot do it."
"Very well, general. I will dispense with your presence at the last moment, but I should like to say farewell once more and to embrace you."
"Will you receive them?" continued the general.
The general went out. A moment later, two priests appeared in the doorway. One of them was called Francesco Pellegrino, uncle of the man who had caused the king's death; the other was Don Antonio Masdea.
"We come to ask you if you are dying a Christian?"
Don Francesco Pellegrino retired. No doubt he felt ill at ease before Joachim. But Antonio Masdea remained at the door.
"Yes, indeed," answered the old man; "but permit me, sire, to hope that it was not your last word to me. It is not, the first time that I see you or beg something of you. I have already had occasion to ask a favour of you."
"When your Majesty came to Pizzo in 1810, I asked you for 25,000 francs to enable us to finish our church. Your Majesty sent me 40,000 francs."
"I must have foreseen that I should be buried there," said Murat, smiling.
"Ah, sire, I should like to think that you did not refuse my second boon any more than my first. Sire, I entreat you on my knees."
"That would give you pleasure, then, would it?" said the king.
"Sire, I would give the few short days remaining to me if God would grant that His Holy Spirit should fall upon you in your last hour."
"Well," said Murat, "hear my confession. I accuse myself of having been disobedient to my parents as a child. Since I reached manhood I have done nothing to reproach myself with."
"Sire, will you give me an attestation that you die in the Christian faith?"
And he took a pen and wrote: "I, Joachim Murat, die a Christian, believing in the Holy Catholic Church, Apostolic and Roman."
"Now, father," continued the king, "if you have a third favour to ask of me, make haste, for in half an hour it will be too late."