CONVERSATION WITH THE SECOND KING.
“How do you like my city?”[14] asked the king.
“Sire, it is splendid, and presents an appearance such as I have never seen elsewhere.”
“All the palaces and pagodas which you see from here have been built in one year since my return from Siam: in another year all will be finished. Formerly Cambodia was very extensive; but the Annamites have deprived us of many provinces.”
“Sire, the time has arrived for you to retake them. The French are assailing them on one side; do you attack them on the other.” His Majesty did not reply, but offered me a cigar, and inquired my age.
“I am twenty-three,” he said to me. “I recognise you; you were at Siam with M. de Montigny.”
“No, sire; your Majesty is mistaken. I have only been in Siam a twelvemonth.”
I then sent for an elegant small Minié rifle, which the king’s officers had examined in the morning, and presented it to him, asking him if he would deign to accept it. He desired me to load it, which I did. “It is done, sire,” said I.
“Is it possible? Fire, then.”