His Majesty was invitingly pleasant.
“Tell this to my cousin: I hear he has ill-health—he must take care of it. I am anxious to see him, I hope he will attend me at the Hague after the conclusion of peace.”
“Sire, after proving yourself as irresistible as Alexander you show yourself as generous as Scipio.”
Louis said nothing to this. He covered his absolute ignorance, of which he was heartily ashamed, with a perfect manner and an unmoved front.
M. de Louvois smiled dryly; he wore the air of a ruler even of the King.
He administered the commissariat department, the brilliant management of which had largely helped to secure the successes of the campaign, and considered himself equally great with, and far more valuable than, any general.
“I am to assure His Highness of Your Majesty’s friendship?” Sylvius bowed on a note of interrogation.
“You may give him,” said Louis, with a large air of generosity, “a proof of it—I have ordered that my troops are to spare his lordship of Grave that we have recently taken——”
M. de Louvois broke in through Sir Gabriel’s thanks—
“Your Majesty, M. de Groot refuses the protection offered him for his country-house.”