In all reason, quoth the king—she will christen him _Francis_, or _Henry_, or _Lewis_, or some name that she knows will be agreeable to us. Your majesty is deceived, replied the minister——I have this hour received a dispatch from our resident, with the determination of the republic on that point also.——And what name has the republick fixed upon for the Dauphin?——_Shadrach, Mesech, Abed-nego_, replied the minister.—By Saint _Peter_’s girdle, I will have nothing to do with the _Swiss_, cried _Francis_ the First, pulling up his breeches and walking hastily across the floor. Your majesty, replied the minister calmly, cannot bring yourself off. We’ll pay them in money——said the king. Sire, there are not sixty thousand crowns in the treasury, answered the minister.——I’ll pawn the best jewel in my crown, quoth _Francis_ the First. Your honour stands pawn’d already in this matter, answered Monsieur _le Premier._ Then, Mons. _le Premier_, said the king, by——we’ll go to war with ’em. [16] Vide Menagiana, Vol. I. C H A P. LVII ALBEIT, gentle reader, I have lusted earnestly, and endeavoured carefully (according to the measure of such a slender skill as God has vouchsafed me, and as convenient leisure from other occasions of needful profit and healthful pastime have permitted) that these little books which I here put into thy hands, might stand instead of many bigger books—yet have I carried myself towards thee in such fanciful guise of careless disport, that right sore am I ashamed now to intreat thy lenity seriously——in beseeching thee to believe it of me, that in the story of my father and his christian-names—I have no thoughts of treading upon _Francis_ the First——nor in the affair of the nose—upon _Francis_ the Ninth—nor in the character of my uncle _Toby_——of characterizing the militiating spirits of my country—the wound upon his groin, is a wound to every comparison of that kind—nor by _Trim_—that I meant the duke of _Ormond_—or that my book is wrote against predestination, or free-will, or taxes—If ’tis wrote against any thing,——’tis wrote, an’ please your worships, against the spleen! in order, by a more frequent and a more convulsive elevation and depression of the diaphragm, and the succussations of the intercostal and abdominal muscles in laughter, to drive the _gall_ and other _bitter juices_ from the gall-bladder, liver, and sweet-bread of his majesty’s subjects, with all the inimicitious passions which belong to them, down into their duodenums. C H A P. LVIII