Horatio Replied To This Compliment With All Humility; And As The Count
Perceived By His Accents That He Was Not
A Frenchman, tho' he spoke the
language perfectly well, he asked him of what country he was; to which
Horatio
Replied, that he was of England, but made him no farther
acquainted with his affairs, nor that the motive of his having remained
so long in France, was because he was not ransomed by his friends: not
that he concealed this out of pride, but he knew the character of most
first ministers, and thought it not prudence to unbosom himself to one
of those, whose first study, when they come into that employment, is to
discover as much as they can of others, without revealing any thing of
themselves. For this reason he was also very sparing of entering into
any discourse of the chevalier's court, or of that of the king of
France, and answered all the questions put to him by the count, that his
youth, and being of foreign extraction, hindered him from being let into
any secrets of state.
After a pretty long conversation, the count led him to the king of
Sweden's apartment, where, just as they were about to enter, he asked
him if he could speak Latin; for, said he, tho' his majesty understands
French, he never could be brought to speak it, nor is pleased to be
addressed in that language. Horatio thanked him for this information,
and told him, that tho' he could not boast of being able to deliver
himself with an affluence becoming the presence of so great a prince,
yet he would chuse rather to shew his bad learning, than his want of
ambition to do every thing that might render himself acceptable.
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