der control, it
would almost have appeared that he was a little irritated at the
contents of the first portfolio, that one inscribed "Letters opened at
the Post." "For," he continued, after descanting on the art of
letter-writing which his subjects appeared to have lost, "the
responsibility given to the masters of our royal post seems to me, my
good Louvois, to be greater than their minds--provincial in most
cases--appear able to sustain. They mark letters from the local
seigneurs as worthy of perusal by us in Paris ere being forwarded to
their destination, which, in truth, are barren of interest. To wit,"
he went on, with that delicate irony for which he was noted, "we have
opened fifty-five letters, and in not one of them is there the
slightest hint of even murmuring against our royal authority, no
suggestion of resisting our, or the seigniorial, imposts, not even the
faintest suggestion of an attack against our royal person. They are
harmless, and consequently wearisome."

"I regret," replied Louvois, softening his raucous voice to the tones
absolutely necessary when addressing Louis, "that your Majesty finds
the system so barren of interest. But, I may with all deference
suggest, perhaps, that it has one gratifying result. All these letters
are from the most important persons among your Majesty's subjects, yet
there is, as your Majesty observes, no one word hostile to your rule
or sacred person. The system--my system--testifies at least to that
agreeable fact."

"Yes," replied the king, in the calm, unruffled voice, "it testifies
to that. You are right. What else is there to do?"

"But little, your Majesty. Yet, with your permission, something. May I
also suggest that Monsieur Pajot and the Vicomte de Rouillier may
retire?"

Louis signified by a bend of his head that they might do so, whereon
the two "farmers," after profound obeisances, left the room, and the
king and his minister again applied themselves to the work before
them.

It was of a multifarious nature, since it dealt with the contents of
each of the portfolios, exclusive of the first--the one whose contents
had been so barren of interest to the king, and which contents would
never now arrive at their destination in spite of his Majesty's remark
about their being forwarded on. For, since the seals and thread had
necessarily to be broken ere those contents could be perused, it would
be impossible to send them on to those to whom they were addressed.