"I do not understand you. I know that you are in a poetical vein; but try not to sink from Apollo to Phœbus."
"Very well; if your majesty will deign to listen to me, I will not put your mind on the rack any longer."
"Speak."
"Your majesty knows the Baron de Valon?"
"Yes, indeed; a good servant to my father, the late king, and an admirable companion at table; for, I think, you are referring to the one who dined with us at Fontainebleau?"
"Precisely so; but you have omitted to add to his other qualifications, sire, that he is a most charming killer of other people."
"What! does M. de Valon wish to kill you?"
"Or to get me killed, which is the same thing."
"The deuce!"
"Do not laugh, sire, for I am not saying a word that is not the exact truth."