"My advice prevail! Listen, Philibert: my letters to the King and
the Minister of Marine and Colonies have been answered by whom,
think you?"
"Nay, I cannot conceive who, out of the legal channel, would dare to
reply to them."
"No! no man could guess that my official despatches have been
answered by the Marquise de Pompadour! She replies to my despatches
to my sovereign!"
"La Pompadour!" exclaimed Philibert in a burst of indignation.
"She, the King's mistress, reply to your despatches! Has France
come to be governed by courtesans, like imperial Rome?"
"Yes! and you know the meaning of that insult, Philibert! They
desire to force me to resign, and I shall resign as soon as I see my
friends safe. I will serve the King in his fleet, but never more in
a colony. This poor land is doomed to fall into the hands of its
enemies unless we get a speedy peace. France will help us no more!"
"Don't say that, your Excellency! France will surely never be
untrue to her children in the New World! But our resources are not
yet all exhausted: we are not driven to the wall yet, your
Excellency!"
"Almost, I assure you, Philibert! But we shall understand that
better after the Council.
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