“Sire — “

“What is it now?” said Louis XI.

“Sire, your majesty knoweth that Simon Radin is dead?”

“Well?”

“He was councillor to the king in the matter of the courts of the treasury.”

“Well?”

“Sire, his place is vacant.”

As he spoke thus, Master Olivier’s haughty face quitted its arrogant expression for a lowly one.

It is the only change which ever takes place in a courtier’s visage. The king looked him well in the face and said in a dry tone, — “I understand.”