‘Yes, willingly, madam.’
‘And do me good service?’
‘Nobody in the world shall do better, madam.’
‘But you are positive, my boy!’
‘I do well to be positive, madam, in such a cause as your Majesty’s.’
She turned to the Earl. ‘What is his history?’
He shrugged. ‘The Sieur Des-Essars—a gentleman of Brabant—disporting in La Beauce, accosts a pretty Disaster (to call her so) with a speaking eye——’
Jean-Marie-Baptiste held up his hand. ‘Monseigneur, ah——!’
‘How now, cockerel?’