"That under which you presented yourself at Chantilly, that under which you agreed to raise a company in my interest, that under which you did raise it, and that under which you sold yourself to Monsieur de Mazarin." "Pardon me, madame," said Cauvignac; "but I have the impression that I had the honor to reply satisfactorily to all these questions during the audience your Highness was graciously pleased to grant me this morning." "At this time I put but one question to you," said the princess beginning to lose patience. "I simply ask you your name." "Very true! but that is just what embarrasses me." "Write Baron de Cauvignac," said the princess. The accused made no objection, and the clerk wrote as directed. "Now, your rank?" said the princess; "I trust you will find no difficulty in replying to this question." "On the contrary, madame, that is one of the most embarrassing questions you could put to me. If you refer to my rank as a scholar, I am a bachelor of letters, licentiate in law, doctor of theology; I reply, as your Highness sees, without hesitation." "No, monsieur, we refer to your military rank." "Ah, yes! upon that point it is impossible for me to reply to your Highness." "How so?" "Because I have never really known what I was myself." "Try to make up your mind upon that point, monsieur, for I am anxious to know." "Very well; in the first place I constituted myself a lieutenant on my own authority; but as I had no power to sign a commission, and as I never had more than six men under my orders while I bore that title, I fancy that I have no right to take advantage of it." "But I myself made you a captain," said the princess, "and you are therefore a captain." "Ah! that is just where my embarrassment redoubles, and my conscience cries more loudly than ever. For I have since become convinced that every military grade in the State must emanate from the royal authority in order to have any value. Now, your Highness did, beyond question, desire to make me a captain, but in my opinion you had not the right. That being so, I am no more a captain now than I was a lieutenant before." "Even so, monsieur; assume that you were not a lieutenant by virtue of your own act, and that you are not a captain by mine, as neither you nor I have the right to sign a commission; at least you are governor of Braune; and as the king himself signed your commission you will not contest its validity." "In very truth, madame, it is the most contestable of the three." "How so?" cried the princess.