"But you forget, captain."
"Ah! it is true," said Roquefinette, intentionally mistaking D'Harmental's meaning: "you gave me a hundred louis; I must give you an account of them."
He took his purse from his pocket.
"A horse, thirty louis; a pair of double-barreled pistols, ten louis; a saddle, bridle, etc., two louis; total, forty-two louis. There are fifty-eight louis in this purse; the horse, pistols, saddle, and bridle, are yours. Count, we are quits."
And he threw the purse on the table.
"But that is not what I have to say to you, captain."
"What is it, then?"
"That it is impossible to confide to you a mission of such importance."
"It must be so, nevertheless, or not at all. I must take the regent to Madrid, and I alone, or he remains at the Palais Royal."
"And you think yourself worthy to take from the hands of Philippe d'Orleans the sword which conquered at Lérida La Pucelle, and which rested by the scepter of Louis XIV., on the velvet cushion with the golden tassels?"