To prove that my intentions are not hostile,
but of the most friendly nature if you will so allow, I have brought
credentials, in the shape of this commission, signed by the king, which
gives you command of a regiment. My good father and I have reminded his
majesty of the devotion of your illustrious ancestors to his royal ones,
and I have ventured to bring you this good news in person. And now, as
I am your guest, I pray you have something or other killed, I don't care
what, and put on the spit to roast as quickly as may be--for the love of
God give me something to eat--I am starving. The inns are so far apart
and so abominably bad down here that there might almost as well be none
at all, and my baggage-wagon, stocked with edibles, is stuck fast in a
quagmire a long way from this. So you see the necessities of the case."
"I am very much afraid, my lord duke, that the fare I can offer will
seem to you only another form of revenge on my part," said de Sigognac
with playful courtesy; "but do not, I beseech you, attribute to
resentment the meagre repast for which I shall be obliged to claim your
indulgence. You must know how gladly I would put before you a sumptuous
meal if I could; and what we can give you will at least, as my good
Pierre says, satisfy hunger, though it may not gratify the palate.
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