“To-morrow evening—I mean in the night.”
“Explain yourself.”
“When I shall have asked your highness a question.”
“Do so.”
“I sent to your highness a man in my confidence with instructions to deliver some closely written notes, carefully drawn up, which will thoroughly acquaint your highness with the different persons who compose and will compose your court.”
“I perused those notes.”
“Attentively?”
“I know them by heart.”
“And understand them? Pardon me, but I may venture to ask that question of a poor, abandoned captive of the Bastile? In a week’s time it will not be requisite to further question a mind like yours. You will then be in full possession of liberty and power.”
“Interrogate me, then, and I will be a scholar representing his lesson to his master.”