They proved that his old comrade Greatauk, the Duke of Skull, had been guilty of jobbery regarding the military stores and had received a present of no great value from a manufacturer called Maloury.

The very smallness of this present deprived the Minister who had accepted it of all excuse.
The prince re-read the letters with a bitter satisfaction, put them carefully back into his safe, and dashed to the Minister of War.

He was a man of resolute character.

On being told that the Minister could see no one he knocked down the ushers, swept aside the orderlies, trampled under foot the civil and military clerks, burst through the doors, and entered the room of the astonished Greatauk.
"I will not say much," said he to him, "but I will speak to the point.
You are a confounded cad.

I have asked you to put a flea in the ear of General Mouchin, the tool of those Republicans, and you would not do it.
I have asked you to give a command to General des Clapiers, who works for the Dracophils, and who has obliged me personally, and you would not do it.