How delightful that will be! I am not, however, quite easy on the subject. Will your vice-god share the imperial revenues with myself? For all labor ought to be paid for. FATHER BOUVET. Our vice-god is so kind and good that in general he will not take, at most, more than a quarter, except in cases of disobedience. Our emoluments will not exceed fifty million ounces of pure silver, which is surely a trifling object in comparison with heavenly advantages. THE EMPEROR. Yes, it is certainly, as you say, giving them almost for nothing. I suppose your celebrated and benevolent city derives just about the same sum from each of my three neighbors--the Great Mogul, the Emperor of Japan, and the Empress of Russia; and also from the Persian and the Turkish empires? FATHER BOUVET. I cannot exactly say that is yet the case; but, with Gods help and our own, I have no doubt it will be so. THE EMPEROR. And how are you, who are the vicars apostolic, to be paid? FATHER BOUVET. We have no regular wages; but we are somewhat like the principal female character in a comedy written by one Count Caylus, a countryman of mine; all that I ... is for myself. THE EMPEROR. But pray inform me whether your Christian princes in Europe pay your Italian friend or patron in proportion to the assessment laid on me. FATHER BOUVET. No, they do not! One-half of Europe has separated from him and pays him nothing; and the other pays him no more than it is obliged to pay. THE EMPEROR. You told me some time since that he was sovereign of a very fine and fertile territory. FATHER BOUVET. Yes; but it produces very little to him; it lies mostly uncultivated. THE EMPEROR. Poor man! he does not know how to cultivate his own territory, and yet pretends to govern mine. FATHER BOUVET. Formerly, in one of our councils--that is, in one of our assemblies of priests, which was held in a city called Constance--our holy father caused a proposition to be made for a new tax for the support of his dignity. The assembly replied that any necessity for that would be perfectly precluded by his attending to the cultivation of his own lands. This, however, he took effectual care not to do. He preferred living on the produce of those who labor in other kingdoms. He appeared to think that this manner of living had an air of greater grandeur. THE EMPEROR. Well, go and tell him from me, that I not only make those about me labor, but that I also labor myself; and I doubt much whether it will be for him. FATHER BOUVET. Holy Virgin! I am absolutely taken for a fool! THE EMPEROR. Begone, this instant! I have been too indulgent. BROTHER ATTIRET TO FATHER BOUVET. I was right, you see, when I told you that the emperor, with all his excellence of heart, had also more understanding than both of us together. PRAYER (PUBLIC), THANKSGIVING, ETC.