The Count of Monte Cristo

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any report more recent than this dated the 20th February.--this is the
4th of March?"

"No, sire, but I am hourly expecting one; it may have arrived since I
left my office."

"Go thither, and if there be none--well, well," continued Louis XVIII.,
"make one; that is the usual way, is it not?" and the king laughed
facetiously.

"Oh, sire," replied the minister, "we have no occasion to invent any;
every day our desks are loaded with most circumstantial denunciations,
coming from hosts of people who hope for some return for services which
they seek to render, but cannot; they trust to fortune, and rely upon
some unexpected event in some way to justify their predictions."

"Well, sir, go"; said Louis XVIII., "and remember that I am waiting for