"Oh! sire, I do not desire to laugh, but just now you reproached me with want of gayety, parfandious!"
"Well, now I am in the mood to hear bad news, if you have any to tell. Luckily I have strength to bear it, or I should be dead ten times a day."
"Which would not displease certain people of our acquaintance."
"Oh! against them I have the arms of my Swiss."
"I could find you a better guard than that."
"You?"—"Yes, sire."
"What is it?"
"Will your majesty be so good as to accompany me to the old buildings of the Louvre?"
"On the site of the Rue de l'Astruce?"
"Precisely."