;--Switzerland, as a republic, being a female,
can in no construction be godfather.--She may be godmother, replied
Francis hastily--so announce my intentions by a courier to-morrow
morning.

I am astonished, said Francis the First, (that day fortnight) speaking
to his minister as he entered the closet, that we have had no answer
from Switzerland.--Sire, I wait upon you this moment, said Mons. le
Premier, to lay before you my dispatches upon that business.--They take
it kindly, said the king.--They do, Sire, replied the minister, and
have the highest sense of the honour your majesty has done them--but the
republick, as godmother, claims her right, in this case, of naming the
child.

In all reason, quoth the king--she will christen him Francis, or Henry,
or Lewis, or some name that she knows will be agreeable to us. Your
majesty is deceived, replied the minister--I have this hour received a
dispatch from our resident, with the determination of the republic on
that point also.--And what name has the republick fixed upon for the
Dauphin?--Shadrach, Mesech, Abed-nego, replied the minister.--By Saint
Peter's girdle, I will have nothing to do with the Swiss, cried Francis
the First, pulling up his breeches and walking hastily across the floor.

Your majesty, replied the minister calmly, cannot bring yourself off.

We'll pay them in money--said the king.

Sire, there are not sixty thousand crowns in the treasury, answered
the minister.--I'll pawn the best jewel in my crown, quoth Francis the
First.

Your honour stands pawn'd already in this matter, answered Monsieur le
Premier.

Then, Mons. le Premier, said the king, by...we'll go to war with 'em.

Chapter 2.LVII.

Albeit, gentle reader, I have lusted earnestly, and endeavoured
carefully (according to the measure of such a slender skill as God has
vouchsafed me, and as convenient leisure from other occasions of needful
profit and healthful pastime have permitted) that these little books
which I here put into thy hands, might stand instead of many bigger
books--yet have I carried myself towards thee in such fanciful guise of
careless disport, that right sore am I ashamed now to intreat thy lenity
seriously--in beseeching thee to believe it of me, that in the story of
my father and his christian-names--I have no thoughts of treading upon
Francis the First--nor in the affair of the nose--upon Francis the
Ninth--nor in the character of my uncle Toby--of characterizin