Nor was I wrong; for no sooner had we reached his cabinet and the door had been closed than he turned upon me the full measure of his wrath.
"You miserable fool!" he snarled.

"Did you think to trifle with the trust which in a misguided moment I placed in you?
Think you that, when a week ago I saved you from starvation to clothe and feed you and give you a lieutenancy in my guards, I should endure so foul an abuse as this?
Think you that I entrusted M.de Mancini's training in arms to you so that you might lead him into the dissolute habits which have dragged you down to what you are--to what you were before I rescued you--to what you will be to-morrow when I shall have again abandoned you ?" "Hear me, your Eminence!" I cried indignantly.

"'T is no fault of mine.
Some fool hath sent M.de Mancini a basket of wine and--" "And you showed him how to abuse it," he broke in harshly.

"You have taught the boy to become a sot; in time, were he to remain under your guidance, I make no doubt but that he would become a gamester and a duellist as well.

I was mad, perchance, to give him into your care; but I have the good fortune to be still in time, before the mischief has sunk farther, to withdraw him from it, and to cast you back into the kennel from which I picked you." "Your Eminence does not mean--" "As God lives I do!" he cried.