Ten Years Later: The Man in The Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas Chapter 9 Page 8

“Tell me plainly, monsieur — tell me without disguise — what I am to-day, and what you aim at my being to-morrow.”

“You are the son of King Louis XIII., brother of Louis XIV., natural and legitimate heir to the throne of France. In keeping you near him, as Monsieur has been kept — Monsieur, your younger brother — the king reserved to himself the right of being legitimate sovereign. The doctors only could dispute his legitimacy.

But the doctors always prefer the king who is to the king who is not. Providence has willed that you should be persecuted; this persecution to-day consecrates you king of France. You had, then, a right to reign, seeing that it is disputed; you had a right to be proclaimed seeing that you have been concealed; and you