"Sire, your loyal subjects have often thought that your royal indigence might have some needs; they are ready to club together, each according to his means, in order to make you independent of foreigners."
"I believe, my dear Chateaubriand," said the King, laughing, "that you are not much richer than myself. How have you paid for your journey?"
I said:
"Sire, it would have been impossible for me to come to you, if Madame la Duchesse de Berry had not instructed her banker, M. Jauge, to pay me six thousand francs."
"That's very little!" exclaimed the King. "Do you want any more?"
"No, Sire; I ought even, by careful management, to be able to return something to the poor prisoner; but I am not good at bargaining."
"You were a magnificent lord in Rome."
"I always conscientiously squandered what the King gave me; I did not have two sous left."
"You know that I still have your peer's salary at your disposal: you refused it."