Arthur Conan Doyle

“ But there will be a storm there which such a man as he can never stand against. With the Iroquois all dancing the scalp-dance, and Dongan behind them in New York to whoop them on, they will need me, and they will find me waiting when they send. I will see the king now, and try if I cannot rouse him to play the great monarch there as well as here. Had I but his power in my hands, I should change the world's history."
"Hush! No treason to the captain of the guard," cried De Catinat, laughing, while the stern old soldier strode past him into the king's presence. ”

“ Then turning on his heel, he hastened away down the corridor with the air of a man who has come to a decision.
"There, now," grumbled De Catinat to himself, as he pulled at his thick dark moustache, "he is off to make some fresh mischief. I'll have his sister here presently, as like as not, and a pleasant little choice between breaking my orders and making an enemy of her for life. I'd rather hold Fort Richelieu against the Iroquois than the king's door against an angry woman. By my faith, here _is_ a lady, as I feared! Ah, Heaven be praised! it is a friend, and not a foe. ”

“ I let the Sorbonne and Geneva fight it out between them. Yet a man must stand by his family, you know."
"Ah! if Monsieur could talk to Madame de Maintenon a little! She would convert him."
"I would rather talk to Mademoiselle Nanon, but if--"
"Oh!" There was an exclamation, a whisk of dark skirts, and the soubrette had disappeared down a side passage.
Along the broad, lighted corridor was gliding a very stately and beautiful lady, tall, graceful, and exceedingly haughty. She was richly clad in a bodice of gold-coloured camlet and a skirt of gray silk trimmed with gold and silver lace. ”