"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 dueling, that no one, I presume, would dare to disobey them."
"In that case, Heaven preserve me from excusing any one!" exclaimed Saint-Aignan. "Your majesty commanded me to speak, and I spoke accordingly."
"Tell me, then, in what way the Comte de Guiche has been wounded?"
"Sire, it is said to have been at a boar-hunt."