"Not at all."
"You are determined to hold to your rights?"
"I am determined not to part with my rights."
"Inducements large enough might be offered." He paused suggestively.
"The only man in France," I said, "empowered to treat for abdication of the throne at present, is Napoleon Bonaparte. Did you bring a message from him?"
Abbé Edgeworth winced, but laughed.
"Napoleon Bonaparte will not last. All Europe is against him. I see we have arrived at the message."
He rose and handed me the paper he held in his hand. I rose and received it, and read it standing.
It was one brief line:—
"Louis: You are recalled.
Marie-Therese."