His stomach, originally a wonderful one, succumbed after forty years of such labors.

His taste, but not his appetite began to fail, and he complained to his majordomo, that all his food was insipid.

The reply is, perhaps, among the most celebrated of facetia.

The cook could do nothing more unless he served his Majesty a pasty of watches.

The allusion to the Emperor's passion for horology was received with great applause.