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
republick on that point also. ----And what name has the republick fixed
upon for the Dauphin? ----_Shadrach_, _Meshech_, _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.
[Footnote 4.9: Vide Menagiana, Vol. I.]
CHAPTER XXII
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 gallbladder, liver, and sweet-bread of his majesty’s subjects, with
all the inimicitious passions which belong to them, down into their
duodenums.
CHAPTER XXIII
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