Portrait from the 17th century
As a servant washed the feet of Louis XIV, another who was holding a lit candle, allowed some drops of molten wax to fall on them, causing intense pain. Calmly, the king observed: “It would have been inappropriate perhaps to have let them spill onto the ground.”
Edmond Guérard, Dictionnaire encyclopédique d’anecdotes (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1872), Vol. II, p. 193. (Nobility.org translation.)
Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 24
