Ten Years Later: The Vicomte of Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas Chapter 11 Page 2

“And do you think I do not know it, sire?”

“You know what remains for me to say to you?”

“Listen, sire; these are King Charles’s own words — ”

“Oh, impossible!”

“Listen. ‘And if that miserly, beggarly Italian,’ said he — ”

“My lord cardinal!”

“That is the sense, if not the words. Eh! Good heavens! I wish him no ill on that account; one is biased by his passions. He said to you: ‘If that vile Italian refuses the million we ask of him, sire, — if we are forced, for want of money, to renounce diplomacy, well, then, we will ask him to grant us five hundred gentlemen.’“

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