"I support it, as all devoted subjects will gain by it."
"Well, sire, I want Zamore to be appointed governor of my summer residence, Luciennes, which shall be created a royal place."
"It would be a parody and make all the governors of the royal places protest, and with reason."
"A good thing, for they are always making a noise for nothing. Zamore, kneel down and thank his majesty for the favor. Sire, you have another royal property from this time forward. Get up, Zamore. You are appointed."
"Sartines, do you know the way to refuse this witch anything?"
"If there is one, it is not yet out into practice, sire."
"When found, I wager it will be by Chief of Police Sartines. I am expecting him to find me something--and I have been on thorns about it for three months. I want a magician."
"To have him burnt alive?" asked the sovereign, while Sartines breathed again. "It is warm weather, now; wait for winter."
"Not to burn him, but to give him a golden rod, sire."
"Oh, did he predict some ill which has not happened?"
"Tell us, countess," said Louis, settling down in an easy chair, like one who is not sure he will be pleased or oppressed but will risk it.
"I am agreeable, sire, only you must share in rewarding him."
"It begins like a fairy tale. Once upon a time, a poor girl was walking the streets of Paris, what time she had neither pages, carriages, negro boy to hold up her train and enrage the dowagers, or parrot or monkey. Crossing the Tuileries gardens, she suddenly perceived that she was pursued."
"Deuce take it! thereupon she stopped," said the king.
"Fie! It is clear that your experience has been in following duchesses or marchionesses. She was the more alarmed as a thick fog came on, and the chaser emerged from it upon her. She screamed."
"No, he was a bright and handsome young man; but still she sued him to spare her from harm. He smiled charmingly and called heaven as witness that he had no such intention. He only wanted her pledge to grant him a favor when--when she should be a queen. She thought she was not binding herself much with such a promise, and the man disappeared."
"Sartines is very wrong in not finding him."
"Cannot ought not to be in the police dictionary," said Dubarry.