hunger, as his mother and sister had nearly done."

Louis knitted his brow, and twisted violently the lace of
his ruffles.

This prostration, this immobility, serving as a mark to an
emotion so visible, struck Charles II., and he took the
young man's hand.

"Thanks!" said he, "my brother. You pity me, and that is all
I can require of you in your present situation."

"Sire," said Louis XIV., with a sudden impulse, and raising
his head, "it is a million you require, or two hundred
gentlemen, I think you say?"

"Sire, a million would be quite sufficient."

"That is very little."

"Offered to a single man it is a great deal. Convictions
have been purchased at a much lower price; and I should have
nothing to do but with venalities."

"Two hundred gentlemen! Reflect! -- that is little more than
a single company."

"Sire, there is in our family a tradition, and that is, that
four men, four French gentlemen, devoted to my father, were
near saving my father, though condemned by a parliament,