“I admit, sire, that I must have been very short-sighted,” said D’Artagnan, with a readiness of humor which delighted the king.
“You do admit it, then?”
“Admit it, sire, most assuredly I do.”
“So now that you see the thing—”
“In quite a different light from that in which I saw it half an hour ago.”
“And to what, then, do you attribute this difference in your opinion?”
“Oh! a very simple thing, sire; half an hour ago I returned from Bois-Rochin, where I had nothing to light me but a stupid stable lantern—”
“While now?”
“While now I have all the wax-lights of your cabinet, and more than that, your majesty’s own eyes, which illuminate everything, like the blazing sun at noonday.”
The king began to laugh; and Saint-Aignan broke out into convulsions of merriment.