William took him gently by the shoulders and drew him closer.
"What are they teaching you, eh?" he asked.
The child answered in a precise, toneless voice—
"I am progressing very well, I thank Your Majesty. The dead languages and mathematics, history, and the philosophy and errors of the ancients, the creation of the world and the feudal system; the Gothic Constitution and the beneficiary law are among my next subjects."
"Doth Your Highness remember all these grave matters?" asked the King, with a faint smile.
"I remember very well, sir, when I have not a headache."
"What gives you headache, Highness?"
The little Duke answered gravely—
"If it were not blasphemy, Your Majesty, I should say that it was acquiring religious knowledge and listening to sermons; but Dr. Burnett says that is a temptation of the devil to induce me to give up my studies."
"Dr. Burnet is making a scholar of you," answered William; "but you are to be a king and a soldier—do not forget that."