“As if it were yesterday.”

“Have you ever heard anything particular respecting his birth?”

“Nothing; except that the king was not really the son of Louis XIII.”

“That does not matter to us, or the kingdom either; he is the son of his father, says the French law, whose father is recognized by law.”

“True; but it is a grave matter, when the quality of races is called into question.”

“A merely secondary question, after all. So that, in fact, you have never learned or heard anything in particular?”

“Nothing.”

“That is where my secret begins.