"
"Bless me!" ejaculated the king, "why all, the girls in my
kingdom would go to prison for such a dowry: however, she shall
have the pension; but, in truth, my treasury is exhausted."
"Then, sire," returned I, "borrow of your friends."
"Come, come, let us finish this business; I will give your
4000 louis."
"No, I cannot agree," answered I, "to less than 5000."
The king promised me I should have them; and, on the following
day, his valet Turpigny brought me the order for the pension, and
a bag, in which I found only 4000 louis. This piece of meanness
did not surprise me, but it made me shrug up my shoulders, and
sent me to my cabinet to take the sum deficient from my own funds.
With this dowry my poor soon found a suitable husband
in the person of one of her cousins, for whom I procured a
lucrative post under government. These worthy people have since
well repaid me by their grateful and devoted attachment for the
service I was enabled to render them. One individual of their
family was, however, far from resembling them either in goodness
of heart or generosity of sentiment--I allude to the brother of the
lady; that same brother who formerly supplied his sister with his
clothes, that she might visit the king unsuspected. Upon the
incarceration of the father the son succeeded him in his office
of , and acquired considerable credit at court;
yet, although in the daily habit of seeing the king, he neither
by word nor deed sought to obtain the deliverance of either his
parent or sister.
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