"Continue, my Lord," he said.

"Now, doctor," said my Lord, in a patient kind of voice as if he
encouraged the other, "you tell us that all these papers were thrust
under your door. By whom were they thrust, do you think?"

"My Lord, I have my suspicions," said the minister; "but I do not know."

"Can you verify these suspicions of yours, do you think?"

"My Lord, I can try."

"And under how many heads are they ranged?" asked the King, drawling a
little in his speech.

"Sir; they are under forty-three heads."

The King rolled his eyes, as if in a droll kind of despair; but he said
nothing.

"And you tell me--" began my Lord; but His Majesty broke in:

"_Mon Dieu_!" he said; "and here is good Mr. Mallock, come here
hot-foot, and knows not a word of the proceedings. Mr. Mallock, these
good gentlemen--Doctor Tonge, a very worthy divine and a physician of
the soul, and Mr. Kirby, a very worthy chymist, and a physician of the
body--are come to tell me of a plot against my life on the part of some
of my faithful lieges, whereby they would thrust me swiftly down to
hell--body and soul together. So that, I take it is why God Almighty