“A handkerchief, — what handkerchief?”

“Sire, at the very moment when I had the misfortune to stumble against your majesty yesterday — a misfortune which I shall deplore to the last day of my life, especially after the dissatisfaction which you exhibited — I remained, sire, motionless with despair, your majesty being at too great a distance to hear my excuses, when I saw something white lying on the ground.”

“Ah!” said the king.

“I stooped down, — it was a pocket-handkerchief. For a moment I had an idea that when I stumbled against your majesty I must have been the cause of the handkerchief falling from your pocket; but as I felt it all over very respectfully, I perceived a cipher at one