"Another stomach-ache? The same as the horses in the bull-ring. But perhaps they have worries!"
By good fortune the great chancellor spoke broken French and Pinchauvas also, so that at last they almost came to understand each other.
"And what may you have been in your country?" asked the chancellor.
"I? A wise monkey."[#]
[#] A wise monkey is a boy attendant in a Spanish bull-ring.
The chancellor did not understand the word monkey, but did understand the word wise, and full of joy he said:
"I am going to ask you a question, and if you answer me rightly, count on my protection."
The chancellor then informed Pinchauvas of the cause which had sown such sorrow in Pekin, and the lad, smiling, said to him with the greatest sang-froid:
"Is that all? Well I will restore calm to the Chinese Empire. I will make this white hair disappear and with it the presages of these charlatans. What has the hair to do with the teeth? Introduce me to the empress and you will see something interesting."
"I will, but it would not be well for the empress to see you in these clothes. May God make your days happy! We must make you look decent!"