"To speak truly, I did forget it, Sire ... just as you forget it for the crown of France. As I was saying, a King by the right of birth looks upon all reform as an encroachment upon his power.... You, on the contrary, look upon the reforms as a means whereby to usurp power. Now, then, however perfidious, however wicked you, Charles the Wicked, may be, I dare you to fail to announce your access to the throne—and that in your own interest—by great and useful measures to the public welfare. That much would be gained ... later, we shall see...."
"And throw me down?"
"I shall work to that end, Sire, with all my powers, the moment you turn from the straight path. You are forewarned."
"And, Master Marcel, you would destroy your own work without scruple?"
"Without scruple! Moreover, better so than as it happened with the first and second dynasties when the stewards of the royal palace or the large feudal seigneurs dethroned the kings and changed dynasties."
"And who would then accomplish the rough task? I would like to know the artisan."
"The people, Sire!... That people, still in its infancy and credulous, must learn that at its breath it can waft away the sovereign masters who impose themselves upon it by force and cunning, and whom the church consecrated. Some day, this very century perhaps, that people will come of age; it will realize the ruinous and superfluousness of the royal power. But that day is not yet. In our days, the people, ignorant and enslaved to habit, would wish to crown a new master the moment they overthrow an old one. They rely on princes. You, Sire, are one of these predestined beings. You can even pretend to reign over Gaul by virtue of one of your ancestors, who was himself deprived of the crown for the benefit of his cousin Philip of Valois, the father of King John. It is, accordingly, not impossible that you may some day reign over France ... a deplorable possibility ... yet tangible enough!"
"You must have courage to speak that wise to me."
"Instead of telling you the truth, I would otherwise be basely flattering you, whose first thought, if to-morrow you are King, would be to rid yourself of me. I indulge in no illusions on that head."
"Rid myself of you, who would have served me!"