"I should not take the trouble to play this terrible game with your royal highness, if I had not a double interest in gaining it.

The day you are elevated, you are elevated forever; you will overturn the footstool, as you rise, and will send it rolling so far, that not even the sight of it will ever again recall to you its right to simple gratitude." "Oh, monsieur!" "Your movement, monseigneur, arises from an excellent disposition.
I thank you.

Be well assured, I aspire to more than gratitude! I am convinced that, when arrived at the summit, you will judge me still more worthy to be your friend; and then, monseigneur, we two will do such great deeds, that ages hereafter shall long speak of them." "Tell me plainly, monsieur--tell me without disguise--what I am to-day, and what you aim at my being to-morrow." "You are the son of King Louis XIII., brother of Louis XIV., natural and legitimate heir to the throne of France.

In keeping you near him, as Monsieur has been kept--Monsieur, your younger brother--the king reserved to himself the right of being legitimate sovereign.

The doctors only could dispute his legitimacy.