“Its virtue lies in myself.”
“Ah! Then the casket must be mine too.”
He sat up suddenly, all rumpled, and bellowed out in a thick, slurred voice,—
“Away, dolts and rapscallions! What! are you prying and listening?”
The secretary hurried to the door, and disappeared. The officer lingered only to protest—
“Affairs of urgency, sire”—
“Pooh!” said the king. “I am attending to them.”
I drew away.
“Pardon me, sire”—I began, when a clap of thunder rattled the glass. His Majesty ran at me whimpering—
“You think to leave me? No, no, madam. I am but half recovered yet. I must be watched, or I shall die. For yourself, you are as safe as in a convent.”