I am indeed ill able for business of such weight.' 'Will Your Majesty please sign your royal name here ?' said the lord chamberlain, preferring the request as a matter of course, and approaching with the feather end of the pen pointed to a spot where there was a great red seal.
'Not today, my lord,' replied the king.
'It is of the greatest importance, Your Majesty,' softly insisted the other.
'I descried no such importance in it,' said the king.
'Your Majesty heard but a part.' 'And I can hear no more today.' 'I trust Your Majesty has ground enough, in a case of necessity like the present, to sign upon the representation of his loyal subject and chamberlain?
Or shall I call the lord chancellor ?' he added, rising.
'There is no need.

I have the very highest opinion of your judgement, my lord,' answered the king; 'that is, with respect to means: we might differ as to ends.' The lord chamberlain made yet further attempts at persuasion; but they grew feebler and feebler, and he was at last compelled to retire without having gained his object.

And well might his annoyance be keen! For that paper was the king's will, drawn up by the attorney-general; nor until they had the king's signature to it was there much use in venturing farther.

But his worst sense of discomfiture arose from finding the king with so much capacity left, for the doctor had pledged himself so to weaken his brain that he should be as a child in their hands, incapable of refusing anything requested of him: His Lordship began to doubt the doctor's fidelity to the conspiracy.
The princess was in high delight.

She had not for weeks heard so many words, not to say words of such strength and reason, from her father's lips: day by day he had been growing weaker and more lethargic.