“No, sire, but I am hourly expecting one; it may have arrived since I left my office.”

“Go thither, and if there be none⁠—well, well,” continued Louis XVIII , “make one; that is the usual way, is it not?” and the king laughed facetiously.

“Oh, sire,” replied the minister, “we have no occasion to invent any; every day our desks are loaded with most circumstantial denunciations, coming from hosts of people who hope for some return for services which they seek to render, but cannot; they trust to fortune, and rely upon some unexpected event in some way to justify their predictions.”

“Well, sir, go;” said Louis XVIII , “and remember that I am waiting for you.”

“I will but go and return, sire; I shall be back in ten minutes.”