"Were that my intention, do you not believe it possible, sir?"
"I believe, sire, that it is full time to drop the past."
"And make myself a Jacobin, as you have said to my valet, Laporte?"
"Forsooth, did your majesty this, it would perplex all the parties, and the Jacobins most of all."
"Why not straightway advise me to don the red cap?"
"I wish I saw you in it," said Dumouriez.
For an instant the king eyed with distrust the man who had thus replied to him; and then he resumed:
"So you want a permanent office?"
"I am wishing nothing at all, only ready to receive the king's orders; still, I should prefer them to send me to the frontier to retaining me in town."