"I can guess the purpose."
"Well, I want to go in your place. I have done with that fool Monmouth, and the French King would suit me well for a master."
"Then ask him to take you also."
"He will not; he'll rather take you."
"Then I'll go," said I.
He drew a step nearer to me. I watched him closely, for, on my life, I did not know in what mood he was, and his honour was ill to lean on as a waving reed.
"What will you gain by going?" he asked. "And if you fly he will take me. Somebody he must take."
"Is not M. Colbert enough?"
He looked at me suspiciously, as though he thought that I assumed ignorance.
"You know very well that Colbert wouldn't serve his purpose."