Monsieur le cardinal gave me the commission himself." "Well!" "But M.de Mazarin, as you know better than anybody, does not often give, and sometimes takes back what he has given; he took it back again as soon as peace was made and he was no longer in want of me.

Certainly I was not worthy to replace M.de Treville, of illustrious memory; but they had promised me, and they had given me; they ought to have stopped there." "Is that what dissatisfies you, monsieur?
Well I shall make inquiries.

I love justice; and your claim, though made in military fashion, does not displease me." "Oh, sire!" said the officer, "your majesty has ill understood me; I no longer claim anything now." "Excess of delicacy, monsieur; but I will keep my eye upon your affairs, and later----" "Oh, sire! what a word!--later! Thirty years have I lived upon that promising word, which has been pronounced by so many great personages, and which your mouth has, in its turn, just pronounced.

Later--that is how I have received a score of wounds, and how I have reached fifty-four years of age without ever having had a louis in my purse, and without ever having met with a protector on my way,--I who have protected so many people! So I change my formula, sire; and when any one says to me 'Later,' I reply 'Now.' It is rest that I solicit, sire.

That may be easily granted me.