CHAPTER LXXIII.
PAUL-EMILE.
"Oh! silence, gentlemen," said, the prince, "do not be more content than I am at my good fortune. I am enchanted not to be dead, you may well believe; and yet, if you had not recognized me, I should not have been the first to boast of being alive."
"What! monseigneur," cried Henri, "you recognized me—you found yourself among a troop of Frenchmen, and would have left us to mourn your loss, without undeceiving us?"
"Gentlemen, besides a number of reasons which made me wish to preserve my incognito, I confess that I should not have been sorry, since I was believed to be dead, to hear what funeral oration would have been pronounced over me."
"Monseigneur!"
"Yes; I am like Alexander of Macedon; I make war like an artist, and have as much self-love; and I believe I have committed a fault."
"Monseigneur," said Henri, lowering his eyes, "do not say such things."
"Why not? The pope only is infallible, and ever since Boniface VIII. that has been disputed."
"See to what you exposed us, monseigneur, if any of us had given his opinion on this expedition, and it had been blamed."