"It is not my fault, monsieur; you must blame these gentlemen and ladies, who will not keep quiet, in spite of all I tell them." "We!" cried all the guests. "Certainly," replied the governor, "you all break through rules; I am always having reports of communications, correspondences, notes, etc." Richelieu laughed, Dumesnil and Mademoiselle de Launay blushed. "But we will speak of that at dessert. You do not drink, M. de Chanlay?" "No, I am listening." "Say that you are dreaming; you cannot deceive me thus." "And of what?" asked Malezieux. "Ah, it is easy to see that you are getting old, my poetical friend; of what should M. de Chanlay dream but of his love." "Is it not better, M. de Chanlay," cried Richelieu, "to have your head separated from your body, than your body from your soul?" "Apropos," interrupted Laval, "is there any news from the court; how is the king?" "No politics, gentlemen, if you please," said the governor. "Let us discuss poetry, arts, war, and even the Bastille, if you like, but let us avoid politics." "Ah, yes," said Richelieu, "let us talk of the Bastille. What have you done with Pompadour?" "I am sorry to say he forced me to place him in the dungeon." "What had he done?" asked Gaston. "He had beaten his jailer." "How long has it been forbidden for a gentleman to beat his servant?" asked Richelieu. "The jailers are servants of the king, M. le Duc," said De Launay, smiling. "Say rather of the regent." "A subtle distinction." "A just one." "Shall I pass you the Chambertin, M. de Laval?" "If you will drink with me to the health of the king." "Certainly--if afterward you will drink with me to the health of the regent." "Monsieur," said Laval, "I am no longer thirsty." "I believe it--you have just drunk some wine from his highness's cellar." "From the regent's?" "He sent it me yesterday, knowing that I was to have the pleasure of your company." "In that case," said Brigaud, throwing the contents of his glass upon the floor, "no more poison." "Oh!" said Malezieux, "I did not know you were such a fanatic for the good cause." "You were wrong to spill it, abbe," said Richelieu, "I know that wine, and you will hardly find such out of the Palais Royal--if it were against your principles to drink it, you should have passed it to your neighbor, or put it back in the bottle. 'Vinum in amphoram,' said my schoolmaster." "M. le Duc," said Brigaud, "you do not know Latin as well as Spanish." "I know French still less, and I want to learn it." "Oh! that would be long and tedious; better get admitted into the Academy, it would be far easier." "And do you speak Spanish?" asked Richelieu of De Chanlay. "Report says, monsieur, that I am here for the abuse of that tongue." "Monsieur," said the governor, "if you return to politics I must leave the table." "Then," said Richelieu, "tell Mademoiselle de Launay to talk mathematics; that will not frighten any one."