“I do not know, sire; but M. de Manicamp knows. M. de Manicamp is one of his friends.”
“As everybody is, indeed,” said the king.
“Oh! no!” returned Saint-Aignan, “you are mistaken sire; every one is not precisely a friend of M. de Guiche.”
“How do you know that?”
“Does your majesty require me to explain myself?”
“Certainly I do.”
“Well, sire, I believe I have heard something said about a quarrel between two gentlemen.”
“When?”
“This very evening, before your majesty’s supper was served.”
“That can hardly be. I have issued such stringent and severe ordinances with respect to duelling, that no one, I presume, would dare to disobey them.”