"Sire, I am sure that her Majesty knows me less than yourself."
"But you must have committed some misdeed, for people are not put in the Bastile for nothing."
"Humph, several in this situation, have come out."
"If you run over your life——"
"I will do so, out aloud: but do not be uneasy, it will not take long. Since sixteen I have toiled without repose. The pupil of Rousseau, the companion of Joseph Balsamo, the friend of Lafayette and Washington, since I quitted France, I have not a fault to reproach myself with, not a wrongful deed. Since heaven gave me the charge of bodies, I have shed my blood for mankind and staunched its flow in others. Thousands live to bless my labors."
"In America you worked with the innovators and propagate their principles by your writings."
"Yes, Sire, I forgot this claim on the gratitude of monarchs and peoples."
This silenced the King.
"Sire, you know my life now; I have offended and injured nobody, queen or beggar; and I humbly ask your Majesty why I was imprisoned."
"I will speak to the Queen about it. Do you believe that the warrant to arrest and imprison came directly from her Majesty?"